Offers Affordable Web Services for small to medium sized companies.

What type of hosting system?

       Unix or Linux based? (Recommended)

               If you need to run MySql database or PHP scripting

       Windows based?

     If you need to run any MS windows applications or use ASP scripting
               to control your web pages.

Does the hosting company put a limit on the amount of traffic to and from your site? Check the amount of Bandwidth you can use.

Do they provide adequate site statistics - number of visitors, where from, most used page etc.

How much disk space, how many e-mail accounts and what type?

Finally the country you host your site in can have a slight advantage for speed if you host in the same country as your customers/ visitors. There may also be legal reasons for hosting your site in a specific country.

Once you’ve had a look at WebSmart UK hosting if you still need a web host? Search the TOP web hosting directory on the net at TopHosts.Com or UKTopHosts.com

Finding the right host is to say the least confusing, you can always ask me any questions via Contact WebSmart UK

5. Web site design - probably the most difficult part to get right. “There is no right or wrong, only opinion” I don’t know who said that but you’ll find plenty of people with different opinions. Choose the style that works best for you and stick to it. Work out how people will navigate easily through your site and keep it consistent.

         You can look at other peoples designs see how they are doing it and base your site on one or a mixture of features. Also read relevant design books and talk to friends and acquaintances about there experiences. Always remember to make your site individual and do NOT copy other peoples work without there permission, ask and they will probably say yes.

• Diagram the site before writing any HTML
• Remember that addresses depend on directory structure
• Plan a directory structure before publishing
• Use intuitive filenames index.html - default page for any directory
• Use relative rather than absolute links

         Useful reading:

         Design Do’s and Dont’s

6. Once you have your ideas written down and a plan as to how people will navigate your site, you will be ready to create the files that are behind the screens you see as web pages.

These files are called ‘Hyper Text Markup Language’ or HTML, you could learn all about this language and become an expert. But life is for living, so you only need to have an understanding of how and why a page is put together.

You can see a short 7 lesson course and download the files. It should give you a good grounding and the references will help in the future. 

7. Once you are familiar with the coding behind the web pages it’s time to decide how you are going to create them.

Option 1.

Let WebSmart UK create the site for you, then maintain and change the site yourself.           Contact WebSmart UK

Option 2.

Create the site using html (this would be the most difficult way for a beginner). You could use a Html generator such as HTML-Kit

Option 3.

Create the site using a WYSIWYG editor (an easier option). You could use NetObjects Fusion the same package that I use, which will make it easier for me to support you.This can be purchased from Amazon UK (Current version is 8)

Option 4.

Create the site using an online editor from your host. There are a number of companies out there that provide this service. An excellent one that I can recommend is Sitesell which comes with every thing you will need to promote your site included.

Remember to create your site on your local PC if you can before loading it up to your host. This will stop search engines from finding a partially completed site and possibly penalising you before you’ve even started.

If your home page isn't focused on eliciting an action from your visitors, you're wasting a valuable opportunity. Visitors want you to tell them how to take action. They need to see what they are supposed to do.   So tell them!

The content on your home page should be riveted around getting visitors to pursue some course of action--whether that means buying the product being advertised, signing up for a service, or getting more info.

Make sure your home page includes a clear button (or multiple buttons) to take the next step. And don't be too subtle: Give a clear, strong, compelling invitation to act.
 

8. Content for your site:

Where Do I Get Images For My Page?

   They are literally everywhere you can use a search engine to find them or take a look at:                                                                                            

If you want to create your own graphics you will need a decent graphics package:

Use Adobe Illustrator to create Vector art & Logos
Use Adobe Premiere to combine and edit digital video sequences and soundtracks
Add animation to still images in Adobe ImageReady
 

When using images ensure that they don’t detract from your site by taking an age to download, visitors just won’t wait. See Tips for reducing file size.

Just remember ‘Copyright’ ask don’t take!!!!

Beware of copyrights! Content on the Internet is the same as any published intellectual work -- it is afforded copyright protection unless it's explicitly declared as public domain. There are hefty fines associated with breaching copyright, so before you go adding graphics, text content, etc., from another web site, be sure you obtain permission to use it.

9. Once you have your site completed to your satisfaction you will need to upload the files to your host. This is done using a ‘File Transfer Program’ or ‘FTP’ for short. These programs can be found using the search engines such as www.google.com or a good program ‘ftpexplorer’ can be found at http://www.haysoft.com/hs/untproduct.php3?fid=2 for around $29

Site Security - don’t let all your hard work get stolen, deleted, or abused by hackers

You can stop all but the most determined people from making unauthorised changes or just malicious damage to your site, by employing a few security steps. This topic is too various for this page but a few of the options available are:

The .htaccess file will allow you to include the following features in your site:

• Error Documents
• Password protection
• Enabling SSI via htaccess
• Deny users by IP
• Change your default directory page
• Redirects
• Prevent viewing of htaccess
• Adding MIME types
• Preventing hot linking of your images
• Preventing directory listing

.htaccess is a file that you can create using notepad in Windows (or any text editor) to add some additional functionality to your site and server. It is usually supported by all Unix/Linux web hosts who use the Apache server. If you need assistance with this  Contact WebSmart UK

To go along with your .htaccess file you could use a custom 404 error page. This will show visitors who type in the wrong address for a page a customised error page instead of the usual and un helpful error 404 page. Which would normally result in a lost visitor.

• Your customers will never see an ugly 404 error again. No more shots at your credibility online.
• Never have to worry about mis-typing an URL
• Instant email notification of all visitors being redirected to your custom 404 pages.

* Now I have to say that I am not an expert in site promotion, but the following should make it easier for you to begin. Good luck

Now the fun begins ‘Build it and they will come’ not so I’m afraid. You or someone else will have to work dammed hard to get your site seen.

The easiest way is to pay someone else to promote your site, but finding the right company is a task in it’s self and they probably won’t be as committed as you will be.

There are numerous ways to promote your site here are the main ones in more or less the right order.

Before you start to promote your site, I would suggest setting up a couple of throw away E-mail accounts because you will be bombarded with replies and junk that’s better kept separate to your business mail.  You could use a www.hotmail.com account but they are the worst for spam so try www.yahoo.com or one of the many other free accounts to be found on the web.

Before you do any advertising or promotion you need to know how many visitors are coming to your site and where they are coming from. These statistics should be available to you from your hosting company. Site stats are updated every time someone visits your site and should be available monthly if not more frequently. If your hosting company does not provide these stats then I would recommend moving to one that does. If you need assistance with this Contact WebSmart UK

No book, no manual, no training program comes close to Make Your Site Sell! 2002 in showing you how to SELL on the Web. From Product to Online Stores, from Site-selling to Traffic-building, its all here in this book. And it all works...

Are you making the most of your web site traffic? Once your visitors reach your site, do they browse for a bit then leave never to visit your site or hear from you again? Or are you capturing the E-mail addresses of your visitors, so you can follow up with them at a later time with newsletters, product updates and special offers?

For many people, it takes three, four or even five exposures to your product or service before they'll buy from you. And if you are capturing leads, are you making it as simple as possible for them to submit their E-mail address? Or are you not even getting out of the starting gate and don't have enough (or any) web site traffic to begin with?

Business Guide to Permission Email Marketing

One of the tools in your fight to gain visitors and traffic is email, but these days you need to ensure that you do not spam anyone.

Read my Full report on Permission Email Marketing

Another easy to use email collection program is

MagicSubscriber™

"Easy-To-Use Software Attracts Customers, Creates Cash Flow & Generates Traffic!"

* Before running any email campaigns be sure you comply with the latest laws.

A good guide to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 can be found at http://www.dti.gov.uk/industry_files/pdf/regulations_20030918.pdf

SpamCheck Report
Keep yourself out of the "Junk Mail Folder." Just check your email or newsletter for "spamminess" by sending it to my unique spam-check e-mail address...
spamcheck-websmartuk@sitesell.net

... and we'll send back a full SpamCheck Report in seconds.
Make sure TEST starts the subject line or we'll ignore it.
 

Safelists - A safelist is a group of individuals who agree to send each other advertisements and solicitations. Many safelists offer incentives for attracting new members and for reading your messages thoroughly. Click the link to see a list of good free or payed safe lists

For an alternative to Safelists or as well as, e-zine ad sellers, classified ads, and other tools.

Auto responders

Auto responders are one of the top promotional tools available online today. They are also known as automatic responders, mailbots, automatic E-mail and E-mail on demand. They were derived from the very popular fax on demand and designed to automatically respond to any E-mail message sent to it with an automatic response.

Most downloads are in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format. So you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open them. If you don't already have this software, you can download it for free.

Downloadable Resource:                                 Right click and choose ‘Save as’

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