Your Web Site

When was the last time you picked up a paper phone book to look up a business? Almost every business today needs a web site, which can range from a few pages as a simple web-based brochure telling what you do and how to contact you to a complex site with online ordering of multiple product lines and public comment, with or without links to social networking sites such as Facebook.

Do you want to write a periodic newsletter? Do want to write less formal blog entries on a regular schedule or when you're in the mood? Do you want to tweet every time you post a blog entry or get a big order? Do you know how to get people following you on Twitter? Do you want to post the latest news of your industry and/or your location? Do you want authorized customers or the general public to post comments? Do you want a web-based shopping cart? Do you want to collect payment? Do you want to pay to show up in the sponsored links (ads) above search results or in the right column, and if so how much?

There are many ways to get www.yourcompany.com online. In most cases we recommend using a commercial web hosting service, which by hosting millions of web sites has the economies of scale to operate efficiently without ever going down (well, hardly ever) and to support multiple Internet backbone connections that are out of reach of smaller businesses. Some have more concern for reliability than others and some have more concern for customer service than others. Many have an easy-to-use web-based web site generator where you pick a template and maybe colors and fonts from a menu and it generates a web site for you, leaving you to fill in the text. Those are simple to create, inexpensive, and effective for some, but might not support the flexibility to make your site stand out from your competitors or to support your unique mix of about you, about your products and/or servces, and about your industry and/or location.

For a step up in power and flexibiliy at the cost of a step up in necessary setup expertise you can define your own appearance or select a template and then build a custom web site using a Content Management System (CMS) such as Drupal. Sophisticated users can set up their own sites with a CMS, or the less savvy and those more interested in running their business than in creating web sites can engage professionals to do the setup. Once set up, people in the business can keep their own content up to date without the necessity of a web professional, or they can engage outside personnel for that while they concentrate on their core activities.

We can help you define what you need for your web presence – your own and/or part of Facebook or other social network – and then help you get it and keep it online as meets your needs.