I want a web site: how do I start? what do I need?

This is a question that often gets asked, so we decided to put something together for you. The finer details may vary amongst design company , but you can use this as a general guide.

Bird's Eye View

From the start to finish of your web site's lifecycle, you'll need the following:

domain name registration
web hosting
designing and developing the site
marketing the site
site maintainance

Now, let's take a closer look at what each of those entails.

1. Domain Name Registration

While you may find that that companies like ourselves can make the necssary arrangements for you, in domain name registration and web hosting, it's worth knowing what it entails. And of course, should you decide to do it on your own, this information will prove useful.

A domain name is an original name that you will own. It can be your company name, or name of the service your company offers. Example:www.ivyclark.com is our domain name.

Characteristics of a good domain name include:

short and simple
easy to spell
easy to pronounce

You can check the availability of your domain name, and we suggest that you reserve it right away if the name you have chosen is available. If you like, let us know the domain name you are interested in, and we can do the registration for you.

While looking for a suitable domain name, you'll also encounter postfixes such as .com or .org, etc. In the United States, this right-most designator (e.g., .com or .org) describes the type of institution or organization that owns the web site.

The chart below refers to the type of institutions you may see while accessing the Internet. Some countries have abbreviated extensions, with the terminal portion of the host name defining the country in which the host resides. For example, http://www.bbc.co.uk is the Web address for the commercial business (.co) called BBC residing in the United Kingdom (.uk).

List of common extensions and their intended meanings:

.biz	commercial institution (new)
.com	commercial institution
.edu	educational institution
.gov	government institution
.info	unrestricted use (new)
.int	international institution
.mil	military
.museum	museums (proposed)
.net	commercial institution (addition to .com)
.org	not-for-profit organization

2. Web Hosting

Web site hosting allows your web site to be connected to the Internet at high speed via a web server so its information can be viewed globally through a browser. As it is costly and not feasible to buy your own web host server, the normal practice is to rent space on a server, which is comparable to renting an apartment.

For a monthly fee, you reside in that apartment and all maintenance is the responsibility of the property. You also have access to certain amenities that would otherwise be a costly investment. A web site hosting company should house your web site on its own secure servers, enabling you to affordably leverage the power of a high speed network, 24/7 expert monitoring.

So, how do you select A web host? There are plenty out there, and a lot offer free personal Web pages but often limit the number of pages you can have and won't allow you to have your own domain name, i.e. yourname@xyz.com. As soon as your web site is designed, you need to choose a web hosting company to connect it to the Internet. One that combines state of the art technology, service, strategic partnerships and top industry professionals to provide you with affordable Microsoft Windows NT/2000 and Red Hat Linux hosting solutions that support your web requirements.

Some web hosting service providers also include in their package unlimited email addresses, support for APIs (application programming interface) such as .PHP, and support of mySQL databases, without additional charges.

As part of our service package, we can assist you in domain name registration and make the arrangements for web hosting, so you don't have to worry about it.

3. Designing and developing the site

Once you have selected your domain name, the next step is deciding if you want your site designed professionally, through an experienced firm like us, or if you want to try it on your own with a web site creation tool.

The Ivy Clark design and consultancy team will provide you with the proper technical and creative talent to successfully plan, build and launch your web site. We pride ourselves on working closely with our customers to create a customized web site that best fits our customers performance and operational requirements.

For the design and development of the web site, you'll need:

a company or site name
a logo (if it's a company web site)
some images or photoes
to write an outline for your web site (identifying it's objective and goals)

Depending on your business and site objective(s), our team will take you through a compresive series of phases that culminates in a successful site.

Phase 1: Analysis. At the beginning, we'll use our business and site analysis tools to help you get a clearer understanding of what you want to achieve from your site, and for us to gather your requirements. This can take a day small sites and weeks for larger sites.

Phase 2: Design. From the details gathered in the analysis phase, we commence with the high level site design. Specific to sites with more than 10 pages, that are supported with backend applications, this includes a User Interface Design and a Systems Design.

The User Interface Design highlights the objective and purpose of the site, pin-pointing design issues that need to be addressed, to make your site as user friendly as possible. You'll also get to see a mockup of the home and/or subpage, as a basis for further discussions on your site development.

The Systems Design identifies all the functional components and databases that your site requires to serve your target audience better.

Phase 3: Development. Once the Design is complete, comes the development of your site pages and applications.

We use tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Freehand, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft Notepad (for programming), and web development or programming languages like HTML, javascript, JSP, ASP, PHP, SQL, etc, to help fulfill your site design and development.

During this phase, you may be required to provide the following:

some images or photoes for use on the site (if you don't have any on hand, they can be purchased from companies like www.photodisc.com or www.imagebank.com for about S$104 or US49 per image)
writeups for the content (we also offer copywriting services if you need any assistance in this).

You'll get to monitor our progress and preview what's been completed, so we can get your feedback while we're still doing the development.

Phase 4: Testing. By the time we complete all the necessary development, you would have also verified most of the work completed, but we'll sit and test it all out for you, to make sure that all the content is aligned and laidout properly, and that all the applications work the way they are intended to. Once you're satisfied with what we've achieved together, we can publish the site.

Phase 5: Site Launch. This is it! Finally, the world gets a glimpse of what we've been working on. To make your site launch more effective, you can also plan for it to co-incide with your other marketing activities. This way, you can guarantee good exposure for your new site.

Phase 6: Delivery. We don't only just upload your site to the hosting environment, we'll also provide you with a site master (that contains all the raw files), so you can maintain the site on your own, or perhaps hire a part-time designer for that. We leave it up to you, if you prefer to come back to us. Your site belongs to you once we hand it over.

4. Marketing The Site

Once you have your web site or business online, the next step is ensuring you drive traffic to your web site. Cost effective promotion is the key to any business, especially on the Internet. Web site marketing companys have sprouted everywhere, and they make web site promotion easy and efficient with comprehensive offering of strategic online marketing strategies and tools for anyone looking to enhance their web site presence.

Whether your just starting or have an established web site on line, being found on the search engines is key to your success. With regulated keyword optimization and search engine submission, your web site will be found.

In addition to your site design, we can also assist you in ensuring your site's listed on popular search engines like Google, Alta Vista, Lycos, etc.

Alternatively, you may want to consider listing yourselve using free submission facilities that are available on the web. One example is:

5. Maintaining The Site

With ownership of the master, you can choose to maintain the site yourself, or perhaps hire a part-time designer to assist you. We will be most happy to help you with your site maintenance, but that's entirely up to you to decide.

Keeping the content of your site fresh is important to encourage repeat visitors. Excellent attractions that you can keep fresh include promotions, new product announcements, news and updates about your company, etc.

		Useful Info