The design of your web site is a very personal process.  Only you can decide what you want to put on your site and what the purpose of your site is to be.  This might seem obvious, but without your business plan, no one can complete the design process.  

Next you need to decide who will do your design.  You can hire a firm like AEW Internet Consulting, or do the work yourself.  Either way you will  have to spend  time or money.  You do not have to be a computer expert to design your pages.  If you can use Microsoft Word to compose the layout of a letter, using a program like Microsoft Front Page is an easy transition.  However if this is your first attempt at a web design, I recommend having someone else do five or so pages and then you can modify them and make additional pages.  And remember your site will grow and change as you business grows and changes. By having your initial site done by a design firm you may accomplish another step we will talk about later, ISP hosting.  The most important thing to remember now is "to get started".  Do not put this off.  Everyday without your site, is a day you are not growing your business on the Internet.

As I said before, you need to keep in mind what are you trying to achieve with your web site.  If your site is selling computer graphics, you need to display those graphics.  If all you are trying to do is let people know about the crafts you make and sell, than show those crafts not fancy graphics.  Remember if that animated object jumping around the screen doesn't help sell your product, get rid of it. Here's the first word of advice when designing your site: The primary reason people leave sites is "slow loading" pages.   And the number one reason pages load slow is large graphics or a large number of graphics.  So keep your first page, called your home page or index page, relatively free of graphics.  Put your graphics on pages designed for a lot of images. Keep the design of your pages simple and organized. 

But no matter who does your site design, YOU will need to provide the content for the pages.  Remember no matter how good your web designer, only you know your business.  So type up your content and  email it to your web designer.  They can make some sample pages and let you review them before anything goes for public viewing or they can show you some templates to choose from.

If you decide to use  AEW Internet Consulting for your design,  we only charge $150 for your first five pages.  This will include an index page, 3 or 4 content pages, a map page showing local resident how to get to your store and a page known as "About Me", which explains your business, its history, philosophies and company policies, etc.  An email link connected to your domain will also be included which will allow site visitors to quickly email you.  There are so many ways to lay out a web site.  You have to star somewhere and here are some samples, but there are many more sites that offer ideas.  Before I can start your site we need to determine the style you want.  If you have seen a site design you like, write down the domain address (http://www.something.com) and then we can start your web site.

After you have your web pages you need to take the next step and put your web pages on the Internet if this wasn't done by your designer..

Internet Consultants
209 Needlewood Lane
Reynoldsburg, OH 43068
614-596-1964

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