Business Essentials and Internet
Practices
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There are some general
rules when approaching your web business to increase
your brand awareness and maintain a professional approach.
There
was a day when it was "cool" that a company
had a web site and the ability to utilize this medium.
Many
companies did not concern themselves with the look
and feel of their site, only proud that they in fact
had one. Times
are changing.
Many people have the impression that web designers all know their stuff
since they could speak about the things that were normally not understood.
We hope to change that and provide you with the basic information to
become educated in the Internet space as it should be as important
to you as your business card or phone number. In the past, someone
always knew a friend's brother's son that did web design part time
and because he could talk the talk, he was deemed the professional.
Now it is quite different as we see many different technologies appearing
for web use and companies are slowly understanding what it means to
their business. This is very apparent when looking at e-commerce. There
is a gap, or separation when it comes to web professionals understanding
your business systems and day to day activities. Your systems should
be integrated and not treated separately.
There are a few basic rules and guidelines to follow when examining
the web and the web hosting environment.
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| 1. |
E-MAIL |
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One
of the most common mistakes businesses make is
concerning their domain name and e-mail addresses.
As a rule, you should not use your personal or "other" company
branded email address such as "abccompany@yourisp.com" .
You should use "yourname@yourdomainname.com". Forget
the "hotmail" and your local ISP free
based accounts. You should have your own domain
name and use it for e-mail. If you have a name
already, you should be using it for e-mail. If
your web hosting company is not capable of setting
this up for you, select a different web hosting
company. Unless you have a deal for advertising
their name with every email you send.....that
may be different, and extremely rare. Would you
put your ISP's name on your business card? Remember,
this is your brand and your company. For a small
fee per year, it is a must for
any professional business. |
| 2. |
DOMAIN
NAMES |
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When
you buy a domain name, you should ensure that YOUR contact
information and e-mail address is used as the
administrator and billing contact by default.
Your domain name provider or web hosting company
should provide this as it is common practice
for reputable firms. If you see your domain name
has their ownership information on the
record, please have them change it immediately.
It is very important that you maintain a valid
e-mail address for this record as well. With
most domain name providers you should get your
own web interface to manage the domain name.
If your provider does not have this, please choose
another provider. You can access the domain name
information, as it is public information, by
going to www.internic.com or www.icann.org,
the organization that manages the domain name
system. The average selling price for domain
names is $15-25 USD per year, be wary of higher
priced and lower priced companies. Also watch
for direct mail and marketing programs by companies
that appear to be ICANN or INTERNIC as all of
the information on the domain name record is
public which some obtain through web tools and
utilize for marketing lists. Renewals must be
done each year if not purchased for long terms. |
| 3. |
WEB
SITE BUDGETING |
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Many
companies wonder.......how much should I spend
on my web site? As this is clearly hard to gauge,
you should consider your investment in a professional
web site to match at least three months advertising
for your business or more. Consider this to be
more important than a single page ad in that
trade magazine you have used in the past. if
you have database or member functionality, plan
to get several quotes to examine the benefits
of each and make sure the web professional understands
your business and the day-to-day procedures you
follow. |
| 4. |
WEB
HOSTING |
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When
selecting a web hosting company, make sure they
utilize the services of a data center connected
to the web. Many companies try to offer hosting
from their office over the dsl or T1 line etc...but
tend to neglect the need to have constant uptime,
fail over procedures, physical and Internet security
24/7 as well as backup generators and multiple
line feeds in case the main provider experiences
line problems. The latter is frequent with Internet
and data connectivity. There are hundreds of
data centers that operate this type of service
and more than one option available in every major
and secondary city in North America. Ensure your
hosting compnay not only offers 99.99% network
uptime, but also 99.99 server or hardware uptime
- the results may surprise you. |
| 5. |
CONTROL
AND ACCESS |
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Hosting
companies should provide you with a browser based
control panel so you can log in at any time and
create e-mail accounts, add users, create a site,
manage files, view web site statistics etc. |
| 6. |
E-COMMERCE |
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Do
your homework here. There are many tools and "shopping
carts" available. We even offer a free cart,
which is quite advanced, inside of your hosting
account. Is it good? Yes! Can it link to your
loacl business System? Maybe. Can it itegrate
with your billing system? Probably not easily
etc. You get the point......make sure you look
at the value of the solution and how it affects
your business. By the way, the OSCommerce solution
we include is very good for managing online and
selling ggods over the web with real time transactions.We
recommend you do not purchase "Island" products
where you need to replicate or duplicate information.
And....FYI, bdo it in real time, not the old
fashioned batch routines. |
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