Being in the web design business in Penang (Malaysia), this is the common question that I have been asked repeatedly. Many entrepreneur here are still unaware of how they can put their current business online and why they should. Well, there are a few main benefits:

1. Internet business is borderless. By launching business online, your service or products will be exposed to not only local buyers, but potentially international customers.

2. Manage from any where. If you own your physical shop, you can only manage it from your store. However for online business, you can manage or monitor it from anywhere – overseas, or at home, or office, or anywhere that you have access to the internet. Convenience?

3. Lower Startup Cost. When I charge RM1500 to RM3500 to design a standard business web site, people first reaction is “Wah, so expensive!” . People who reacts like this has never think of how much he spent initially for his physical business. RM30,000 may be for shop renovation and set up. So what is RM1500 to RM3500? A few hundred ringgit for a web site? Yes there are… from a guy next door with part time job may be…

4. Low Maintenance Cost. Paying your shop rental RM1000 to RM3000 a month? Then what is paying RM200 to RM300 a YEAR for server hosting fee? Design fee is only 1 time, and the rest is just paying for the server rental only. You need a web server operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to run your website online.

5. Customer’s convenience. Tired of faxing your product catalogue when your client required ? And costly too if faxing to overseas. Further more, in black and white only. So why not putting it online and let your client or potential customer browse by themselves easily and conveniently from their place.

6. Easy & Fast Product Update. When product specs changed, or new products arrived, you need to reprint your catalogues, and dispose off your old catalogues, and re-inform or re-post your new catalogues to your existing clients. Waste of time and money, isn’t it? With online system, you can easily manage, insert new, edit or delete product information and photos in a matter of minutes. Just inform your existing client to get the update from your web. Period.

7. Easy Ordering. Customer doesn’t have to come from far to your shop in order to buy a piece of cake. They can order it online, pay it online, and you deliver it right to their door step. Easy?

So, back to this topic, how to put your business online? Easy, just compare online and offline business below. Basically you need 4 main steps:

Step 1

Register a Web Domain name – yourcompany.com (RM49) or yourcompany.com.my (RM100) – Yearly Renewal.
This step is equivalent to register your company name with the Company Registrar. Yearly payment too.

Step 2

Rent your Web Space at Datacenter in Cyberjaya, KL or so-called “Web Hosting”. Yearly Renewal. It will run your website 24 hours x 7 days a week. 50GB Hosting Space (Web & Email) RM199 / yr.
This is equivalent to Renting a shop lot to run your business. Monthly or yearly payment.

Step 3

Design your web site and put in information or create your online store and load the products to sell. This can be done by you (if you know) or hire a web designer. 1 time payment.
This is equivalent to Hiring contractor to build / renovate / decorate your shop lot and then showcase your products. 1 time payment too.

Step 4

Promotion & Marketing. By listing your site on Google / Yahoo / MSN plus other top business directories, or pay to advertise with them.
This is equivalent to printing of flyers or banners to market & promote your business.

I will be discussing deep into each steps above in my next article. By now you know that it is actually same steps taken to launch your business online. The different is you need to find the correct party to do it and the cost is very much lower.

Advice : DO NOT just look for cheap, but also think of the quality of the web site you will be receiving, the features that the web site has, and whether it is made for a non-programmer (you) to update (DIY capability). If you do not have the easiness to update web info, you will have to rely on that designer for updating all the time. Nothing is wrong though. Just in case.. he is gone or out of the business… who knows?

I’m the web designer and web programmer at Eko Solution, http://www.eko-solution.com a web design company based in Penang Malaysia since year 2002.

The web copy of this article is located at http://www.eko-solution.com/web/web_design_basic.htm

Author: Jason Lim
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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How much should a website cost? That question is like asking how much should a car cost? On one hand, you have the discount lower quality KIAs and on the other, quality and expensive Mercedes Benz, they both get you from point A to point B, so why spend more? Well, thats not the whole picture. Like cars, websites and web design/development firms offer different levels of quality, performance and support. In a nutshell, you typically get what you pay for.

When shopping for web developers, you need to look at many different factors such as;

• Quality
• Price
• IT
• SEO
• Turnaround time
• Support
• Design
• Experience

1. Quality – Quality, is a very broad factor and basically covers all realms of functionality, appeal and programming back-end. When you shop for a media or web design company to create your website, look at their previous work and see if it has the face appeal that you are looking for. Spend time on their previous works, click through the pages, look for a continuing effect through all of the pages. Check the support on various browsers such as Internet explorer, Safari and Mozilla Firefox to name a few. Some websites will look well in one browser, but not the others and if it looks bad on any browser, you could loose a lot of visitors and business.

2. Price – Price is going to probably be the first thing you will look at and will probably be the main factor in who you decide to choose. This is a very touchy matter because there really isn’t a set or defined rate for web design and development services. Here is a general breakdown for a cost of a 10-15 page, custom designed, standard web page with no heavy programming and development.

• Large, highly qualified, experienced firm: $5,000 – $10,000+
• Medium sized, experienced firm: $3,000 – $4,000
• Small, skilled, experienced freelancer: $1,000 – $2,500
• Skilled, unexperienced freelancer: $500 – $750
• New, unexperienced, low quality: $200 – $400
• Indian or similar outsourced: $100 – $400

Those figures are very broad and there are definitely exceptions to those numbers. Under the $1,000 mark you will typically get unpolished, quickly developed, and end up with a website that poorly reflects your business efforts. Like most things, you get what you pay for! Up past the $1,000 range you will have a much more effective and targeted site with qualified people to back it up. For a basic 10-15 page website, I would advise not to spend more than $5,000.

3. IT – IT is the technology and back end of the site created. A qualified firm or freelancer will develop your site with the latest and most efficient languages and be valid in all W3 standards. This is typically a problem in inexperienced freelancers or individuals who have not been trained in web development. Poor efforts in this realm could result in bad indexing within search engines and unreliable compliances in various internet browsers.

4. SEO – SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts are essential in quality web sites. Although strong SEO marketing tactics are not common in “standard” web site development, it is extremely beneficial that your website is SEO ready and has the basic elements of SEO incorporated into your website, no matter how standard or basic your website is. When you communicate with a potential web developer, be sure to ask if basic SEO elements will be placed in your site for future compliances.

5. Turnaround time – Turnaround time is the time it takes for your developer to create your web site from beginning to launch. Turnaround time is not a direct factor to the quality of the web site, but it often a factor in the overall cost of your project. Typically, a larger, qualified firm will develop a site quicker, but that is not always the case. Very commonly, slow rate of completeness will come from outsourced firms due to communication barriers. For a basic web site consisting of 10-15 pages, it should be completed in less than one month.

6. Support – Support is severely overlooked factor in web development service. When a development firm or freelancer creates your website, you need to insure that they will assist in all aspects of launching and maintaining the site. If you need a change done to your site and you don’t have the technical knowhow or software to change it, you should be able to contact your development firm and they will make the changes within 24 hours or in emergency situations, much sooner. Before you deposit any money to your group, make sure you understand the rules of their support policies.

7. Design – Design is the face of your website, clearly. It is what people will see first and will have the strongest impact to your visitors about your company. A lot of weight goes behind a web site’s design, a poor design and visual appeal quickly will indicate a poor and novice company. Although a bad design may not always mean a bad company, visitors will surely think that.

Design goes far beyond visual appeal, it digs psychologically into the visitors and reflects the business it represents in a dignified matter. The smallest hole-in-the-wall shop can appear to visitors as a fortune 500. Only qualified firms or designers trained in online marketing and general marketing can effectively harness this power – not cheap, unexperienced freelancers or outsourced designers can do that.

8. Experience – Experience reflects the overall knowledge that the freelancer or firm has. Some freelancers will have loads of experience from previous work, but larger firms can be a sure bet that your website is truly quality work.

Recap

So, there you have it, a quick and easy guide to hiring a web development firm. To sum it all up in one easy sentence; You get what you pay for. A quality website cannot be found for under 3 digits. A website is an invest to yourself, and your company and should be the last thing you should be pinching pennies on.

http://www.revivedgroup.com/

Author: Phil Antonson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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African Webmaster struggle daily in the pursuit of relevance in the Global outsourcing industry. Outlined below are the common problems facing African Webmasters and their possible solutions:

Problem #1 – Finance – Lack of funds to invest in training, equipment is a real challenge for African Webmasters due to a dearth of training resources and lack of money.

Solution: Sourcing Finance will always be a challenge for everyone irrespective of their class, status and chosen profession. You can source used computers from merchants at low rates and make good use of the Internet for upgrading your knowledge of your industry.

Problem #2 – competition – Competition can come from larger business, fellow freelancers, BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) Companies in India, China, Ghana, Kenya etc

Solution: There will always be jobs for a skilled and cheap web designer no matter the increased competition, put in more effort in whatever design jobs that may come your way and let your skills speck for you.

Problem #3 – Lack of sales prospects – Nothing can reduce a person ego than being out of work, the feeling is likened to be fired from secular employment.

Solution: Make Yourself Known by giving free seminars in your local community, create posters and distribute it in your neighbourhood, stores, restaurants, hotels etc. You can also make use of online Job Boards and websites which periodically lists web design jobs suitable for freelancers.

In conclusion, African Webmasters need not dread the trio evils of Lack of Finance, competition And lack of sales prospects. They should rather concentrate their efforts into using the Internet as a tool of accessing readily available free training resources and also as a mechanism of reaching out to the thousands of potential clients out there.

Did you find this article intriguing? Why don’t you take advantage of a score of free resources available on http://www.squidoo.com/African-Webmasters

Author: Kingsley Duru
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

There are several ways you can find content for your website. The least expensive is probably writing the pages yourself. A webpage doesn’t have to be a lengthy production. 250-300 words is just about enough for one webpage. Pick a topic that relates to your niche. Narrow the topic to one area. If you have a website that is on, say, dog care, you could pick Grooming and Bathing. That’s till too broad for 250 words, so narrow it down again to Bathing. Now think about the different aspects of Bathing. You could write about how to bath the dog, or where to bath him/her, the type of shampoo to use, how to dry the dog. There you go, you now have subjects for four different articles.

Article directories provide a gold mine of articles on every subject imaginable. Article Directory Sites:

Ezine Articles

Easy Articles

ISnare

Go Articles

Search the directory using the same key words you use for your website. You should be able to find a range of articles you can use. As long as you follow the Terms of Service (TOS) there shouldn’t be any problem. Be aware that most of those terms require that you leave the link in the author’s bio when you use the article. That means there could be a bit of leakage from your site to the author’s site, before your visitor has had a chance to click on one of your ads or products. Do not use the article and remove the link. That’s just not fair play.

You can have articles for your site ghost written for you. The prices range from $1.00 per hundred words to $30 per 400 words. Cheaper is not always the best deal. Some of the very cheap articles are not carefully written, or may not be written by someone whose primary language is English.

If you use a little imagination you can find lots of ways to fill your web site with interesting content that keeps your visitors interested.

Website Design Services by Ryan Jensen. Home Based Businesses can help you earn money from home.

Dee Power has co-authored several nonfiction books including Business Plan Basics, Inside Secrets to Venture Capital and Attracting Capital From AngelsRead her blog Power of Publicity

Author: Dee Power
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Currently, there is a high demand online for both travel information and for online ad space from travel related businesses and services. This combination means that travel websites can be great moneymakers for those who build and run them. If that sounds good to you, read on to learn how to build a travel website with freely available tools.

Step 1 – Pick a specific niche in the travel market to target.

You don’t want to build a travel website that covers too much territory at once, so to speak. It’s much better if you build a site with information on “cheap hostels in Rome”, than a site about “European Hotels”. By focusing your site on a well defined niche within the travel market, you’re more likely to provide the exact information visitors are searching for – which means more traffic and profits for you.

Step 2 – Prepare your travel content.

Travel sites rely heavily on pictures and written descriptions by fellow travelers. This is a good time to pull out your travel photos and prepare them for the web. You’ll also want to start writing as much as possible about the places your site will be covering. If you are preparing a travel site on a place you haven’t visited yourself, you can always find travel related photos and articles you can use on sites such as EzineArticles and Flickr. Be sure to follow the terms of service of each site before using the content yourself though.

Step 3 – Launch your travel site.

With your content prepared, it’s time to get it live online. Sites such as Wordpress.com and Blogger allow you to publish your content online for free quickly and easily. Eventually though, you’ll probably want your own domain and hosting but this is a great way to get started. If you can use basic word processing software, you’ll have no trouble building your first travel site with these free tools.

Bonus Tip: They key to keeping visitors at your travel site is to make certain your site looks professional. Be sure to use quality web page graphics when designing your travel site. There’s an excellent collection of them to check out right now at: http://www.EZBizGraphics.com

Author: Terrence Roundtable
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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