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Planning a Web Site
or
Okay, I Want a Web Site, What Do I Do Now?

At WebDev Works we can use our skills and experience to bring your ideas to life. But your vision and ideas will help us to deliver the results you want. If you formulate some ideas about the following items, it can help us to develop a high quality Web site for you and clearly communicate the information you want to present about yourself or your organization. You can jot down ideas about these items. Or, we can gather this information through interviews and consultations with you.

What Do You Want to Achieve with the Site?
(Defining Your Site's Purpose)
Define what you are communicating or selling via the site, whether products, services, information, or expertise. If you want to sell products through the site, do you want to sell directly or indirectly? If you want to sell directly from the Web, we can set up an e-commerce site. Or, if you are taking a more indirect approach, either by necessity or design (for example, you provide a service that can't actually be sold through a Web site), we can set up interactive Web forms through which you can gather information from your visitors and provide them with information about your products, services, and how to contact or locate your organization or business. Perhaps you want to set up an informational site through which you are communicating your knowledge of your field, experience in a business, or general information. Then think about the key points your want to communicate up front.
Who Would Be an Ideal Visitor to Your Site?
(Defining Your Target Audience)
Consider whether your primary site visitors will be current customers, prospects, or users who are interested in your products, services, or the information you provide on the site. Or will you have many first time users who will be visiting your site in order to gather general information? Will you have many repeat visitors? Will your site visitors be the types who spend a lot of time online or are they Web neophytes?
What Are Some Sites That Appeal to You?
(Defining the General "Look")
By directing us to several sites that appeal to you, we can get a feel for what kind of "look" you want your site to have. Sample sites make it easier for you to define this. "A picture is worth a thousand words." The URLs you provide need not be the same type of organization as yours nor need they necessarily be similar to your business in any way. They must simply have a general look, feel, or layout that appeals to you or contain elements or features that you would like on your site.
What Kind Of Art and Colors Do You Want?
(Defining the Specific "Look")
Have some fun with deciding color schemes or art work that you want. You might want to start with your company or organization logo and go from there. If you are unsure about some of this, we can make suggestions and create logos, icons, and art for you. There are three main types of art: photos, clip art and custom images. Photos can bring a site to life. We have a professional photographer who can produce high quality images for you. And photos are part of our standard packages. Clip art is cost effective because it often has no fee associated with it. Custom artwork, which will cost you a bit more if you want to use a professional graphic designer, can create a unique element for your site.
What About the Content?
(Defining the Basic Information)
Each page on your site will contain words. That is obvious enough. And we can create copy from existing brochures, catalogs, any written material you have, or simply through interviews with you. But you might think about the general categories of information that you want to provide. What would you like to have covered on each page. You might break this down into topic or category ideas and make brief bullet lists of topics and information "bits."
Any Features Specific to Your Site?
(Sprucing Things Up - Embellishments)
Think about site features that you want. These could include such elements as a newsletter sign-up form, a site visitor registration form, a general form that collects important information from visitors or clients such as contact information or areas of interest. This information can be stored for your later retrieval and review. You should also have automatically generated "contact us" e-mail pages and the venerable "Send this to a Friend" function. If you are having an e-commerce site built, you will need the shopping cart and catalog functions, perhaps customized to fit your desired look.

We can help you define all these things through meetings and interviews with you. But give it some preliminary thought yourself. Remember, this is your Web site, you have initiated the vision - we look forward to helping you realize that vision!
webdevworks@zoominternet.net