SBB-WEB

Your Web Site

This page is for people who want to build a web site. If you already have a one, you may also find it useful.

1. Do you need a web site?

The answer is probably "yes." It is being said in the U.S. and Europe that a business without a web site won't be in business in five years. This may not be strictly true. Subscribers to an e-newsletter I receive recently debated whether the corner barber needed a web site. Most people thought not, but some had some clever arguments for it.

Make sure you have clear goals for your site in mind. Think about its size, the time and money you want to spend on it and the sort of site you want. Consider the audience you want to reach. The single most important thing about a web site is content. Without compelling text and graphics, no matter how many people visit initially, they will not return.

Some 5% of all web sites generate 75% of traffic. Big business does and will continue to dominate. However, I am a firm believer in the Internet being the best place for a small, focused business. Choose your niche carefully and go for it!

Recommended Reading: Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet by Katie Hafner & Matthew Lyon

2. Equipment and connecting to the Internet

Of course, you will need a computer, peripherals and software. Fortunately, hardware, at least, is getting cheaper all the time. There are many places to buy this equipment, including Priceline (where you can name your own price), Beyond.com, pcmall.com and so on. Get a scanner. They are cheaper than ever these days and you can scan beads directly. You might think about a digital camera. They are still pricey, but you will need them (or a regular camera and scanner) for larger items. Don't ignore the Y2K problem. If you have older equipment, you may need a patch or an upgrade. There is a page here on this issue for small bead businesses.

To connect to the web you need to get there. Usually flat rate telephone lines are the cheapest, though cable and other systems are moving in quickly. This applies to the US. Elsewhere telephones can be very expensive. This has impeded Internet growth, solutions are being found. You connect to an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to put you on the Internet. In Europe, these are free (ISPs get kick-backs from the phone companies). Free ISPs doubled connections in Spain in the first two months. This might even happen in the US.

You can go with a big ISP such as AOL, Mindspring, Earthlink or Compuserve (now owned by AOL) or a local one. I get a price break for paying my local ISP a year in advance.

3. Hosting your site.

A crucial decision at start-up is who to host your site. It need not be the ISP you use for connecting to the web. In addition to price, you must consider two things: visibility and technical support.

Many large ISPs, such as Xoom and Geocities offer free sites. Your URL (Universal Resource Locator, that is, your Internet address) on one of these will be bulky, something like this: www.geocities.com/soho/myprettybeads.html (all URLs begin with http://). Aside from being free, these companies help you build your web site. I have no experience with any of them, but Xoom seems to be the most tech-savvy.

A DLS (Dirty Little Secret) of the Internet is that free hosted sites get less respect than stand-alone domain names (such as thebeadsite.com). People feel unsure about doing business with them because they are less likely to be around for long. They also receive lower rankings in search engines (see below). This may not matter to you if you just want a small site. You can always go from a free site to a domain name later (but changing addresses can be a hassle). You may feel you need the support at first.

By the way, another DLS is that people with URLs or email addresses with aol.com are routinely considered to be newbies. If you are, you are, so be it. AOL has a very high turn-over rate. I'm not trying to put you off them. They have a great business model and I wish I had bought their stock back when, but I'm just letting you know.

Technical support is crucial, especially at the beginning. My guess is that free hosting sites will help you build a site, but won't be much help afterwards. (If you've had experience with this, tell me about it.) My site is hosted by my local ISP. Not only do I get the price break, but they are especially good at technical help. If you are in upstate New York I recommend NorthNet to you. Otherwise, check around to find the best local prices and support.

4. Getting your own domain name

If you want a domain name (e.g. thebeadsite.com) you have to register it. The first step is to see if it is available. To do that most easily, type it into the search box below. This takes you to Network Solutions, Inc. (formerly InterNIC, now they call themselves "the dot.com people"). If a name is available or not, this will tell you.

Apparently all one-word domain names are taken. Your business name may also be taken. Give thought to your name, as it will identify you to everyone on the Internet. Right now there is only one place to register domain names, Network Solutions Inc. (NSI). It costs $70 for the first two years and $35 for each year thereafter. Once you have entered through the search engine you can register with them.

(It can be slow at times. I don't know why the button doesn't appear; it is not my fault. Just press the icon or your "Enter" key.)

This situation is changing very fast and there are many squabbles over it. I shall update this page as things happen, so check here when you are ready to take this step.

Be very careful to register the site properly. Unlike free hosts, where you can always switch to another (though this involves informing all your contacts), it is extremely difficult to amend information. I sadly know this first-hand and my experience is not unique.

There is another possibility, using the name of your country as the extension. ".uk," ".fr" and ".de" are used after domain names for web sites registered in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, respectively. Every country is assigned a two-digit code (there is even a ".us"). Registration is done locally and is often cheaper than with NSI. Still, ".com" is the most coveted extension.

5. Building your site

If you are going the free ISP way, then your host should help you. If you feel you are not getting enough help, switch to another one. With help or not, make your site reflect your personality (unless that stinks), attractive and clean and easy to navigate. One of the best tutors is the popular and recently revamped site called (pardon me) Web Sites That Suck.

Three outstanding sites that have a great deal of technical (and not so technical) information on them are ZDNet, CNet and iWORLD. I refer to these several times in this essay. They all update five days a week and iWORLD has several international editions written in both English and another language. Sourcebank is a new site with a search engine devoted to questions by site developers. Troubleshooters has a lot of information on technical matters and a short tutorial on how to troubleshoot.

If you are going to build a site, you have several ways to go. If it is small you can get by with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get -- pronounced whizzy-wig) site builder. With one, you write as you would a letter and it does the HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language, the basic language of the Web) source code in the background. It will let you import graphics, change colors and fonts and do all sorts of things. None are perfect, but reviews of many of them are on iWORLD, ZDNet and CNet.

If you are using Word 7.0 or higher, there is a built in WYSIWIG. As with many of Mr. Bill's products, it sometimes does funny (read irritating) things. If you're going to do it right, you need to learn some HTML and tweak your code in Word Pad. By default, I am still using Word 97.

One piece of advice, learn some HTML (and java and perl if you want to get fancy). The topic most easily researched on the Web is, not surprisingly, the web. You can download The Bare Bones Guide to HTML by Kevin Werback and A Beginner's Guide to HTML at the NSCA site. There are probably others; if you find another good one, let me know.

The other piece of advice is to get yourself a techie (technical person) to help you out. At least at the beginning, they are indispensable. I put a small classified ad into our local paper and found two good people, one of whom was with me for a long time. Now, between what I know and what NorthNet does for me, my back-up techie is a person I quite trust, but have never physically met. He also hosts sites and provides many useful services.

Recommended Reading: The Internet for Dummies (sixth edition)
HTML 4 for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide by Elizabeth Castro
HTML: The Definitive Guide by Chuck Musciano, Bill Kennedy, Mike Loukides (Editor)
Creating Killer Web Sites, Second Edition by David Siegel
The Non-Designer's Web Book: An Easy Guide to Creating, Designing, and Posting Your Own Web Site by Robin Williams with John Tollett
Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites by Patrick J. Lynch & Sarah Horton
Web Design in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference by Jennifer Niederst & Richard Koman (Editors)
Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design by Vincent Flanders & Michael Willis
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating an HTML 4 Web Page (book third edition + CD) by Paul McFedries
Javascript: The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan

6. Putting up your web pages

This often baffles people. What you need is a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) utility. You can read about them and down load some from ZDNet, iWORLD and CNet.

7. Getting your web site seen

Nearly all Webmasters are eager to bring in as much traffic as possible. The most important ways to do this is by your position on Search Engines (Yahoo, Excite, HotBot, etc.), word of mouth and through links, including web rings. Advertising in traditional (print) media is next.

The Search Engines (most like to call themselves "Portals" now) are the trickiest part. There are several important things to do to get on a search engine, including the design of your site and submitting to them. There are many outlets that offer to help, including:

Joscon Networks The page I've linked spell out the basics of search engine placement. Be sure to visit all their links, including the ones on scams.

Make Your Site Sell, very informative with a free e-newsletter.

Web Position. One of the most informative parts of this site is the Talk area, where people post questions and answers. It is a really high-tech bulletin board.

There are sites that will submit your URL to 10, 50 or 100 or more search engines. These are usually advised against. The Write Market includes a search engine tutorial and a submit page that tells you what the major search engines want and links you to their submit pages.

There are zillions of recondite tricks (thirty links to an invisible GIF, for example) and just as many tricksters out there. The Search Engines are aware of most of these and try to stay one step ahead (actually behind) them. Don't try them; they are not worth it.

A few other notes to what is already the longest section.

Yahoo is not technically a search engine but a directory (so is Snap). Real people look at your site and decide if you are worthy. It is the leading "search engine" and placement is important, though sometimes difficult.

Recently Alta Vista blocked sites with the extension (.com is an extension) .nu. This extension comes from Niue, a tiny Pacific island, which along with Tonga (.to) is making money selling it's extensions (so are other countries). Even if every citizen had a dozen web sites there would still be plenty of one-word domain names left and .nu is cheaper than registration in the U.S. Why AV blocked them is not clear, but the owner of non-porn Whats.nu got his lawyers after them and it is no longer blocked. The search engines may block them in future, so be aware of that.

A recent study showed that only a fraction of web pages (there will soon be a billion) are covered by search engines. They are trying to rectify this. Word of mouth, links and advertising are still viable ways to get people to visit your site.

As for thebeadsite.com it has grown to be one of the two or three biggest (perhaps the biggest) bead site out there. This has happened principally through word of mouth.

8. Maintaining your site

Keeping your site fresh is important. If it is static, people will not revisit. Search engines also drop static sites. Big sites take a lot of work, believe me. You will either have to block off a lot of your time or pay someone handsomely to keep your site current. Either way it is a big commitment. Don't in get over your head. If you are new, think small at first. You can always expand later.

9. E-commerce

You can sell over the Internet and e-commerce is growing fast. If you have a merchant account with a credit card company you might want to build your own e-commerce site. Software programs for doing this are now under $US 100, but they are not complete solutions, giving you only templates to build a site, not the hard stuff. You will want a shopping cart; a free one and lots of information is at the Carey Internet site. A large directory of e-commerce solutions is on Free Merchant. E-Commerce 101 is perhaps the most inclusive. Another useful site is Online Orders

No Merchant Account has a list of sites that allow you to do e-commerce without set-up or monthly fees or a merchant account. It is maintained by Neal Shearing, whose own site is very useful. While I have just signed up with them, the people who seem the best fit for me are CCNOW. One danger is that credit card default is still relatively high on the Internet and hurts small businesses in many ways.

Recommended Reading: Creating Stores on the Web by Joe Cataudella, Dave Greely & Ben Sawyer
Customers.Com: How to Create a Profitable Business Strategy for the Internet and Beyond by Patricia B. Seybold, R. T. Marshak & Ronni Marshak
Digital Darwinism: 7 Breakthrough Business Strategies for Surviving in the Cutthroat Web Economy by Evan I. Schwartz
Webonomics: Nine Essential Principles for Growing Your Business on the World Wide Web by Evan I. Schwartz

10. Growing your site

Electronic newsletters, like bEad-Mail are potent tools. With a good email program like Eudora you can send out thousands in a few minutes. There are also people who will help you manage a newsletter and mail them.

They inform your visitors and keep a high profile for your site. Some hints. Make them informative, carrying news, not just an extended ad. Don't spam; send them only to people with whom you have a relationship. Few are good enough to send out daily or even weekly. Make it clear how to subscribe and unsubscribe and what you will do with the names you collect. When someone wants to cancel, cancel them (be aware that unscrupulous types take "cancel" as confirmation of the address and sell the name).

There are many sites devoted in whole or in part to the questions and problems web masters have, including our old favorites, CNet, iWORLD and ZDNet. Mark Joyner at Jayde.com offers a free five day marketing course. Another good resource for webmasters is the home site of CIO Magazine. There are scams that are pitfalls for webmasters. Check out possible ones at WebScams.

If you have heavy traffic to your site it might pay to sign up for affiliate (also called associate) programs. These pay a small commission when someone buys at a site that they have reached through a link on your site. Some will even pay a tiny amount just for having someone visit (a "click-through payment"). Nearly all (or maybe all) of those listed here are for the U.S. I would imagine that such programs will catch on elsewhere.

Amazon.Com pioneered this concept and has been very successful with it (they had over 300,000 affiliates last I heard). There are literally thousands of these programs. To get you started you might go to Refer-It, which bills itself as the "Supermarket of Affiliate Programs" and has lots of information or Associate Programs, which had over 1500 sites looking for affiliates, several hundred more than about ten months before. I have learned that it does little good to affiliate with companies that have nothing to do with your core business. Additionally, what a merchant will pay is often erratic.

And the last word (really). I have spent a lot of time, energy and thought to putting up the Small Bead Business Center. If you find it useful and are going to sign up with someone or buy a product, please do it through the links here. I get a small commission from some of them and it does not elevate your cost. That's how you can best thank me. However, I have recommended what I consider to be the best sites, regardless of whether I am an affiliate.

The other thing you can do is send me other useful recommendations (ignore the subject line).