Web Hosting Data Transfer: How Much Is Too Much?

Bandwidth in its simplest terms refers to the amount of data that flows across a network wire in a given time period. For most web hosting providers, that time period is measured in a month. Web hosting providers are charged a certain amount per month or per year for an allocated amount of bandwidth from backbone providers and wholesale data centers. That cost is then passed on to the consumer in the form of web hosting plans.

How much bandwidth will my website use?

With so much variation among web hosting companies, it can sometimes be difficult to know how much bandwidth your website will need. So, how much is a gigabyte of bandwidth anyway? Let’s put it in perspective. If an average web page, images and all is 50 kilobytes in size, your website could be viewed 20,000 times! For the average hobby website, that is more than enough. Let’s further put that 20,000 in perspective. If each visitor to your website viewed an average of 4 pages per month, it would still represent over 5,000 unique visitors to your website every month.

Beware of bandwidth usage when offering file downloads

While offering simple web pages doesn’t use up much bandwidth, the same can’t be said about downloading files. If you plan on allowing people to download music files, pdf files, flash files, or video files, you can eat up bandwidth in a hurry even with a relatively small number of people visiting your website. If your website offers an adobe .pdf file that is 1 megabyte in size, with one gigabyte of bandwidth, you will only be able to serve up one thousand downloads. This does not including the html needed to get people to download the pdf in the first place.

Video files eat up even more space. A one megabyte video file represents only seconds of video. For a half hour presentation, your video file could easily be over two hundred megabytes in size! At that size, one gigabyte would only allow you to offer five downloads to your visitors. What you plan to do with your website most definitely will affect how much monthly bandwidth you anticipate needing.

Overselling bandwidth is common in the web hosting industry

Because more people use only a fraction of their allotted bandwidth per month, most web hosting providers price their plans knowing that most people will only use a fraction of the resources available to them. In fact, with most companies, if you did use the maximum bandwidth available to you each month, you would most likely be shut down. If you go with a shared hosting account, your website can be hosted with hundreds or thousands of other websites. If your website starts to use a significant portion of the server’s resources, you may find them pulling the plug on your website. If you know your website is going to need significant resources, you should probably consider getting yourself a dedicated server.

Knowing what you plan to do will allow you to know how much you need

By knowing what you plan to do with your hosting account, you can have a pretty good idea of how much bandwidth you’re going to need. If you anticipate that you will be needing to serve lots of multimedia including video, music and large amounts of flash powered pages, you may need to consider going with a dedicated server. If your website is just starting out and you have little money and no real idea of how much bandwidth you’re going to need, pick a company that gives you more than you think you’ll need at a reasonable price. Make sure you also find out how much they will charge you for any bandwidth you use above and beyond what comes in your hosting package. If it is one dollar per megabyte and you’ve already exceeded a twenty gigabyte bandwidth limit, changes are, you’ll get one hefty bill at the end of the month. When shopping around and looking at bandwidth, keep the overage cost in mind as well and you’ll do fine.

This article was written by Joe Duchesne, president of http://www.yowling.com/, a web hosting company that strives to make it easy to setup and maintain your website. Copyright 2004 Yowling. Reprint Freely as long as you link back to my website from this resource box.

How to Choose a Website Design Company

The internet is full of web design companies pleading for your business. They all look great! Not sure which company to select? By following these simple steps, you’ll be able to select the perfect designer for your business.

1. The search for a web designer. Unless you really feel that face to face meetings are a priority, there is really no reason why you can’t hire a web designer outside your local area. Most people turn to search engines on the internet for their search.

2. The designer’s portfolio. Once you stumble on a website that catches your interest, look for samples of their work. Freelancer or business, anyone who claims to be a web designer has design portfolio. Because taste is a personal choice, it’s possible you won’t “like” all of the examples in the designers portfolio. But even if you don’t like the particular colors or theme they used for a particular client, look further into the design. Ask yourself these questions:

Are there designs clean and crisp?

Does the overall design have a professional appearance?

Is the navigation clear and easy to use?

How Is their language, grammar and spelling usage?

3. Check references. If you think the designer can do a good job for you, check their references. You’ll find contact information for past clients in the designer’s portfolio. They can give you their real life experience with the design company.

4. Selecting a web designer. If your comfortable with the references and like the examples in the portfolio contact the design company to discuss the requirements of your project. By corresponding with the designer via email of telephone, you’ll learn a lot about how responsive and flexible they are. If you’re working with a timeline and/or a budget, explain this and be sure they can accommodate your needs. Keep in mind that not every web design company has the capabilities to do what you need. Be sure to make your requirements clear up front so you don’t get stuck with extra charges or delays.

5. Getting pricing for your website. Request web design quotes from your favorite companies. Make sure bids are comparable. One company may include website maintenance in the package and one may not. Some of these “extras” can be very valuable. Check item by item to be sure you know what your paying for.

6. Partnership. Engaging with a web design company should be a partnership. Let them work for you by offering useful information about your business and the image you want to portray. Participation on your part will contribute to an overall successful design that will meet or exceed your expectations.

Even though some of these steps seem obvious, its often easy to overlook the simplest things when we have a lot to do. We hope These steps will help you on your quest to find the perfect web design company.

Cindy Kelly
TheWebDecorators.com, A Professional Website Design Company

You Too Can Have Fun With Sepia Images!

If you are one of those who wonder how people come up with the cool looking sepia tone prints that you admire so much. If you are doubling up with jealousy over a sepia tone, here, we will give you tips on how you could achieve this sepia tone, too. Ready up your Photoshop software program, your PC and prepare to have fun with sepia! It’s time that they envy you, too.

First of all it is important for you to choose images that have some darks and lights - it doesn’t matter how colorful they are. Many images could go along with sepia tone, so you won’t take forever finding an image. You can even have a black and white image. However, if you start with images that are in CMYK, there’s no need to convert them to RGB. If you’re going to use them for the web, then convert them to RGB by clicking IMAGE-MODE-RGB. Take the image size down to 72 dpi with about 4 inches in height. Do this by the commands, (IMAGE-IMAGE SIZE). If your image is for print, though, a much higher resolution is needed for it. The dpi needed can be checked with your printer.

You’ll see how big your image is by making sure you are at 100%. Whether you are using the image for the web or planning to print it, make sure that you are aware of the size you have it set at. Scale the size down or repair a choppy image by using the ZOOM TOOL-Hit Z on the keyboard - hold down your ALT key. On a Mac, open apple key to toggle back and forth between zoom in and out). You’ll see your image smoothing out as you manipulate these commands. We dearly hope that it would work for you!

When you have found the ideal size you want for your images, we go on to the fun part! Begin working on the color first for it is easier and adjust your lights and darks.

Change the Hues of your image by IMAGE-ADJUST-HUE/SATURATION. Check the box that says colorize and preview or check it by default. It’s your choice if you like to adjust the top bar to the color you want for your image, or just type in numbers. Saturation is how much of the hue you chose will be used on your image. For adjusting lightness, the lightness slider does the trick. Try not to go crazy over this last bar (lightness).

Then, adjust the darks and lights. Even if you think your image is already so great and you wouldn’t want to mess it up try this - select IMAGE-ADJUST-LEVELS. Three sliders will appear - the first will make your image lighter, another will make it darker, and the last one adjusts the midtones. Adjust on these sliders depending on the image you use. Once you’re done, hit CONTROL-Z or EDIT-UNDO MOVE to see your image before the adjustments. It will switch back to the original image. If you hit CTRL-Z or EDIT-UNDO MOVE again, it will toggle back to the image with the level adjustment you just applied. If you like to have fun, go over it again and again! Just don’t blame us if you get bored!

And we haven’t told you that you can do different types of hues? So, we’re telling you now! If you’ll be doing this types of images for the web the great thing is that you can save them as a GIF and they will look wonderful. File sizes will not be a problem since you are using lesser colors! Good luck with your sepia!

Lala C. Ballatan is a 26 year-old Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a non-government organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

Book reading has always been her greatest passion — mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

Her writing prowess began as early as she was 10 years old in girlish diaries. With writing, she felt freedom - to express her viewpoints and assert it, to bring out all concerns — imagined and observed, to bear witness.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.graphicdesignsunlimited.com

Database Driven Web Site - Do You Need It?

Many of site owners still don’t realize all advantages of database driven web sites and don’t use all abilities they give. So when do you need a database driven web site and how it will make your web-life better?

What is a database driven web site?

Database driven web site is one that uses database for collecting and storing information. What information it can be? Various. Email addresses, contact info, clients list, products list, listings of real estate property, trade offers, images, and links, etc.

How does it work?

For example, you have a static HTML web site for your business with posted information about the company, products or services, clients, and there is contact form. If you have strong HTML skills you update your site without problems each time you need it. Otherwise you hire a webmaster or use maintenance services of a web design company. You write info in text document, send it to your webmaster, he manually inserts it to the site. You store your products, clients, and contacts info in Word or Excel files. Probably you store emails that you receive from contact form in Word or Excel files.

Is it handful and easy? Is there an alternative?

In the database driven web site all information is stored in table format of databases on the server, script generates pages that are showed on the site as usual HTML ones. Usually database driven web sites have admin panel with user-friendly interface where you can manage the site content, i.e. add, edit, or delete info by yourself, create new pages or delete old ones. You can update your site easily each time you need it.

Requests sent form contact form can be saved in database for further use, you can edit them, group, and sort.

You can create pictures gallery on your site and update it easily.

You can have news box at your site and update it easily each time you need it.
.

Is it expensive?

No, if you order the site from a web design/development company that has good experience in database driven web sites design that means elaborated and tested development process, time and cost saving methods which give high-quality work within short timeline and at affordable price. Ask your web design company do
they make database driven web sites, if yes, look at the examples of such previous works, ask references of the customers - are they satisfied with their web sites? - and if the price is acceptable move forward to your new web site. Or search for another web development company using the same criteria for choice.

What else you should know?

Probably, you will need to change hosting plan or even hosting provider to host your new database driven web site.

Usually there are such requirements for hosing:

• Must support PHP/MySQL or ASP/MSSQL
• At least 75-100 Mb of disk space
• Must have Database Client
• Must have Mail server

Julia Ramyalg

Marketing Director of IT-Inventors - professional offshore web site design and development company

http://www.it-inventors.com

Visit our web site to order Affordable database driven web site design - clients database, online gallery, online albums, news, newsletters, products and services listings, and more. Prices start from $50

Custom web site design, E-commerce web site design, Content Management Software integration into existing web sites, Real estate web site design, Flash sites design, Logo design, SEO.

Winclear :Clear Dogpile Search History

PC security is essential to everybody, and that is why prices for antivirus and firewall software tend to go high. But while enterprises have no other choice but to pay for data protection, regular home users can save off quite some money going with free PC security software. If you ever see unexpected pop-ups on desktop (when no browser is launched) or suspicious Windows messages rest assured your PC is heavily infected by spyware.

Spyware loosely defined is unwanted, obtrusive (read system intensive - memory hogging) and always potentially dangerous software unintentionally installed on a pc. Most anti-spyware software makers lump adware (that stuff which gets installed because it’s free or cheap), BHOs (browser helper objects - stuff that suddenly appears on your browser), distributed attack tools, keystroke loggers, pcp software, tracking cookies, and unauthorized remote admin tools in the same global spyware box. Data loggers, key loggers are just a few programs which harvest info from your computer. Winclear is the only program created specially to auto remove such spywares. Your email account has also been compromised so it is important that you change the password for your account after your computer is cleaned. That is why every computer owner needs winclear.

Protect With Winclear :Property History Search
Every time we are required to supply a password we need to use a new and different password. For example, suppose you need a password for a bank account, an email account, an internet forum you visit, and maybe you use a password to log on to your own computer (you should). These should be four different passwords. Otherwise a hacker or identity thief only needs to discover one password and then try it out on some bank accounts, email accounts, web forums or anything else associated with your name. Winclear is the only software which is capable of removing keylogger programs. Spyware is a constant and annoying problem. Winclear has been the industry leader in fighting keyloggers for the last 8 years.

Winclear:
I have Mcafee on the front door and Netdetector for spyware. That is the reason why you need Winclear installed onto your computer. Thus your partner will not know that you are watching his every keystroke enabling you to easily find out if he or she is in an illicit relationship. Protect your computer security by using Winclear! More about Winclear here: http://www.winclear.info.

Problems Found After Indexing 200 Websites

NADmedia has a service that will include a member into the
directory. Once the member is in the directory viewers can
search for a New Media Professional by state or province. Once
the members website url is entered into the database the members
entire website is indexed. Users can use NADmedia search engine
to find relative keywords that they enter. After indexing 200
websites I’ve found a lot of problems with the way web builders
are using there meta information. If you have a website that you
are making public, why hide what you have to offer? One of the
biggest problems found with about 40% of the sites I’ve indexed
was with the title of web pages. Duplicate titles were used for
different pages. Each page was different. When you duplicate the
title of web pages it is a waste of resources. The search
engines are only going to record one of those pages. Just as
when you use duplicate keywords, search engines will consider
those keywords as an act of spamming. Same goes for titles. Web
masters be careful to pay close attention when it comes to meta
tags. Your title should coincide with the content of your page.

Another big problem found with sites I’ve indexed was the
absence of a description tag. Meta tags are used primarily by
search engines. If you do not supply a description for your web
page then the search engines will not have any information to
put into its database in regards to a description for that
particularly page. Obviously, if you have a title and
description that is relevant to that page you are more likely
going to gain the respect of a search engine. The search engine
FOUND what it was looking for. When you loose your keys, do you
want to spend 5 minutes searching or just 1 minute? The easier
you make it for the search engines, the less time and resources
spent on their end will make up in how you rank with them.

If you have a website or are a web master, look at each of your
web pages meta information. Check to see if your meta tags
conform to rules set out by major search engines. Once you
optimize your pages, you will find that your efforts will be
rewarded with higher rankings.

ASP Web Hosting

ASP Web Hosting ASP web hosting refers to web hosting companies
who provide support for ASP (Active Server Page). If you want a
dynamic data-driven web site you may wish to embed ASP code into
your web site’s HTML Pages. When a user is viewing a web site
that is developed using ASP, the pages can change depending on
the actions of the user. ASP code allows you to link your web
pages to a database, where users can interact with the web page
by logging in and using their own personal settings or they can
interactively place orders on your web site.

What is ASP? ASP stands for Active Server Pages. Active Server
Pages are HTML pages with embedded ASP scripts that are
processed on the server before the page is sent to the user. ASP
allows you to create dynamic database driven pages, a user can
access data in a database, and interact with page objects such
as Active X or Java components.

How does ASP work? When you type a URL in the Address Box or
click on a web page you are asking the web server to send a file
to your computer; if the file is standard HTML, then, when your
web browser receives the web page it will look exactly the same
as it did on the web server. However if an ASP file is sent to
your computer from the web server, firstly, the server will run
the HTML code; and then, run the ASP code. For example: the ASP
code could be the current date, or time; and other such
information.

How to find an ASP web host You will need to find a web host who
will host your website on a Windows 2000 server. It is safer to
host your ASP pages on a Windows 2000 server as they are more
stable and most ASP components work with IIS (Internet
Information Services), specific to Windows. You also need to
consider if your web site uses a database (e.g. SQL, Access) and
then make sure your web host provides support for the type of
database your web site uses.

Real Estate Web Design

Real Estate Web Design: Are You Being Sold?

Abstract: Real Estate Web Design experts review the needs of
Realtors(R) and real estate brokers, and highlight the
advantages of dynamic real estate websites.

The most successful real estate agents and brokers realize the
value of their agency websites and are constantly working to
improve them. Unfortunately, many agencies throughout the United
States are still working with static websites that are difficult
and costly to maintain.

But how do I upgrade? you ask. Often this is not a simple
answer. You need to consider the needs of your business and your
agents. How will you manage listings? Are you using a Multiple
Listing Service (MLS)? Should your agents have access only to
certain parts of your administration panel, and not others? What
about logging agent and visitor actions on your website? Here is
what you should look for in any real estate management system
you contract for:

Dynamic, searchable listings. If your listings are not
currently in a database and searchable, they need to be. This
feature is the reason so many homes are sold online. It’s the
“shopping in your underwear” principle: if a web surfer can
access information about your homes at 11pm, and in a bathrobe
while watching ER, no less, a whole new window of
opportunity is opened, allowing you to showcase your listings
24/7. He immediately emails you and sets up a showing; you
arrive at your office the next day, get the email, call him, and
you’re on your way to making another sale.

Easy contact methods. All the interactivity on the Net
won’t help you if your potential client can’t get in touch with
you. Make sure that your newly designed website has plenty of
opportunity for users to click to your contact forms: a link
from every listing, and multiple contact methods (phone, email,
etc.). Don’t require too much information on the form, but make
sure you get enough: at least a name, an email address, and a
phone number. Also, don’t rely on straight email links to get
the job done: many computer users do not have a default email
program installed, so when they click on your link all they will
find is a setup wizard–a confusing and annoying situation for
many users.

Lead management. The other end of the line of
communication must be tied in: your lead management system must
dovetail perfectly with your website. If you have an existing
lead management system, see if your web design company has
already built an interface for it, or would be willing to build
one for your website. If you do not have a lead management
system, find a website system that will provide one for you,
seamlessly integrated with the site itself, such as the AWS Real Estate Manager.

System logs and user management. Real estate agencies,
unfortunately, are not immune to legal issues with personnel and
properties. System logs help you track down what was done on
your site, when, and by whom. Make sure that whatever real
estate website you choose includes a system log that shows you
key activity on your site. You’ll thank yourself later when a
dispute arises.

Likewise, you’ll need to specifically manage which sections of
your site certain agents are allowed to edit, and others they
are not. The administration panel of your website should have a
section for setting user permissions: whether a user can edit
all listings, or only those assigned to him; whether he can add
or delete other users on the system; how many listings he can
have and how many images attached to each; whether he can access
the system logs, etc. These features will help you properly
regulate the bandwidth and quota your site uses so you won’t
incur extra charges each month, as well as avoiding duplicate
work and conflicts among agents.

Self-updating site pages. If you’ve outsourced updating
of your real estate website to a web design company, you know
how expensive it can get. Such updates need not reach so deep
into your agency’s coffers. When researching your new site, see
if it provides a tool to allow you to create whole website pages
on your own.

But I can’t write webpage code! you say. You shouldn’t need to.
If the site is designed correctly, you’ll have a form that walks
you through the process of adding page data and content,
complete with hyperlinks, images, font formatting, table
creation and all the HTML essentials–with nothing required
except a little aesthetic sense. With such a system, you could
easily save $2500 or more per year on outsourcing costs.

Whether you’re starting a new real estate agency or are looking
for a new design for your real estate website, this information
should help you find an effective system that will suit your
business’s needs. Other items to consider are search engine
friendliness of the website system, marketing skills the firm
can bring to the table, and support. Armed with these questions,
you can be sure you’re getting your money’s worth, and that
you’ll encounter as few problems as possible with the
implementation and maintenance of you new website.

Tom Burke http://www.awsinternet.com

Top 7 Tools for Bloggers

Although blogging and RSS seems to be a hot topic these days,
only about five percent of American internet users actually use
it.

>From both a business and personal perspective though, blogs and
RSS have a lot to offer for the average internet user.

The main reason is that by using RSS, you can cut down on the
amount of email that you receive. You can receive a lot of your
news in the form of headlines.

Blogs can tell you what people are thinking about, and what
they’re really interested in. This is an effective tool for
marketers. If you’re looking to meet new people, this can also
be an excellent way to meet others who share common interests.

It’s not really necessary to understand what blogging and RSS
are.

Blogs are nothing more than online diaries. They can be used to
talk about business trends or any other topic.

RSS is a form of website code that is search engine friendly and
can be read in a special type of browser called an RSS reader.
As I said before, this is a great way to receive news on just
about anything you’re interested in.

If the thought of keeping an online journal or using blogs to
discuss your business interest you, then I have some great tools
that will make your blogging experience a lot easier.

1. Blog building

Before you build a blog, you need to decide how you want to host
it.

If you’re not interested in the technical aspects involved, you
can always sign up for a free account on a blogging site.

The most popular is Blogger - http://www.blogger.com

If you’d like to build your own, there are several different
ones you can try including Word Press ande Nucleus.

Before you choose a blogging script, I recommend you try
different ones to see which one you like best.

Open Source CMS - http://www.opensourcecms.com - offers several
different types of scripts you can try to find the blog script
that’s the right fit for you.

The most important feature in a blog script is that it’s search
engine friendly.

2. Blog editing

This may not seem that important. After all, you can just go
right to your site and post.

Sounds easy right? Maybe not if editing HTML is as alien to you
as the notion of learning to build a blog in the first place.

Try this tool to help you post to your blog. It offers you a
WYSIWYG editor, which means that you can write and edit at the
same time, and it you’ll see exactly how your blog post looks as
you are writing.

Blog Editing Toolbar - http://www.aspmodules.com/at/bloginfo.asp
- This tool will help you easily edit your blog without knowing
HTML. All you need is IE 6, and the install is quick and easy.

3. Blog Posting

Maybe you don’t find the idea of posting online very appealing.
As a writer I can’t imagine being without my word processor.

If you’d rather have a desktop tool, instead of writing your
blog from the control panel, this tool is for you.

wBlogger - http://www.wblogger.com - is an excellent application
for helping you create blog posts, and you don’t have to be
online to write posts for your blog.

You create your post and save it for when you are ready to post.
This is especially convenient if you don’t have time to write
everyday.

4. Blog Subscriptions

Although RSS is slowly becoming popular, many still like to
receive an email. The problem is that many of the autoresponder
systems you can use either don’t include RSS, or RSS
autoresponders can be expensive.

Below are two tools where you can copy and paste a subscription
box onto your site and visitors can subscribe for updates.

http://www.feedblitz.com/ http://www.bloglet.com

5. RSS Generators

If your blog application doesn’t create a feed automatically,
you may have to make one. It’s really much easiser than it
sounds.

With this application, you just enter your information and click
submit. This is especially useful if you want to create a feed
for your website.

RSS Feed Generator -
http://www.rsstoolchest.com/rss-feed-generator/

6. Blog and Ping Applications

You use these applications to let the blog and RSS directories
know that you’ve updated your blog. This is especially important
if you own a business blog because it allows you to quickly and
easily notify several sites at once.

One caveat though: you should only use these applications to
update the directories of new posts to your blog. Don’t use them
to notify the directories that you have an RSS feed for your
site. You’ll get banned.

Pingomatic - http://www.pingomatic.com Pingoat -
http://www.pingoat.com

7. RSS Promotion

Although blog and ping is great for notifying the directories
that you’ve updated your blog, you usually need to submit your
RSS feed to the directories first before using the update tools.

Feedsubmitter - http://www.feedsubmitter.com - is a free tool
you can use to help you get your feed indexed quickly. This will
save you some time because you don’t have to visit each site to
get your site indexed.

Although I can’t give you any ideas to write about (although I
will if you want to pay my consulting fee blogs are a great
way to meet new people and expand your business.

Website Content for Small Businesses: What Should Be on Your Website

Is your small business web site ineffective as it is? Or, are you taking the leap onto the world wide web for the first time? Either way, you’re searching for the answer to the question, “what does an effective website contain?” Well, there is no simple answer to this question, as I’m sure you already know. However, I can provide some steps to help you evaluate your site’s purpose–knowing a website’s purpose is essential for developing effective content.

What is your site’s purpose?
If you don’t know what you want your website’s visitors to do once they’re there, your site, more than likely, does not have a clear purpose. By answering the following questions, you should be able to narrow down your reasons for having a site:

Does or do you want your site to encourage potential customers to contact you (via e-mail, phone or contact us form)?

Does or do you want your site to offer tools or resources for visitors (calculators, forums, downloadable information, etc…)? And if so, why?

Does or do you want your site to provide information about your company? About your industry?

Does or do you want your site to sell products?

Does or do you want your site to collect information from visitors (e-mail addresses, mailing addresses)?

Once you answered each question, you can evaluate content needs.

Encouraging Contact
If you want potential customers to contact you, you must encourage them to do so. How, you ask?

• Tell them to and have your phone number on every page.
• Ask them to send you their address and phone number for more information via a sign up form. Have a link to this form on every page.
• List an e-mail address that they can send questions to. Have this information on every page.

You’ll notice the “on every page” aspect of each of these options. If you want visitors to contact you, the way to do so needs to be easy to find. Your text on each page should also refer visitors to the contact option as well so they know exactly what you want them to do.

Tools and Resources
If you have information or a forum or some other tools or resources you want your visitors to use, make sure they are aware of their existence and that people know how to use them. Different tools require different kind of promotion (for example, a forum needs to be monitored and questions and comments need to be responded to; where a tool for calculating the cost of building a deck just needs instructions and a “what to do with this information” description).

Make sure visitors know not only where these tools are, but also why they are there and how their use will benefit them. Don’t just add functionality for functionality’s sake…if it doesn’t support your site’s purpose, it shouldn’t be there.

Providing Information
If you will be providing information to your visitors, make sure you have it indexed and easy to find. Adding a search form to your site is useful as well. It is also essential to not only keep adding articles to your “library” but to make sure visitors and customers are aware of the added content (perhaps via an RSS feed or an e-mail newsletter).

Selling Products
If you sell products on your site, obviously your purpose is to get people to buy the products. If a visitor goes to your site and doesn’t see any products, well, obviously they won’t know to buy them. Once someone arrives at your site, they should be presented with your products and be provided ample reason to buy (for example, a testimonial about the product on it’s page, a quality guarantee, etc…). Your home page should also showcase different products on a regular basis and include the same incentives to buy.

Collecting Information
If the main goal of your site is to grow your mailing list (regular mail and/or e-mail) you have to provide visitors a very good reason to give you their information. Collecting information can be combined with other things, for instance, getting customers to contact you can require getting their information. Also, when you provide information, something like a special report, you may require they provide their e-mail address or other contact information. You can be a bit creative here, but remember, if what your giving isn’t worth it, they won’t give you their contact information.

Other Items to Include
There are a few items that I believe every small business web site should have no matter what its purpose. These are an “about us” area, a “contact us” page or information, a sitemap, a privacy policy and disclaimer page.

The “about us” page can share your small businesses story with visitors and provide a history. People generally feel more comfortable doing business with people they know, sharing your story is a way to let your visitors get to know you and your small business.

The “contact us” page should contain your company name, physical and mailing address, phone and fax numbers and at least a general e-mail address. Why, because people may want to contact you and it is frustrating if there is no way to do so. You can limit what items you provide, but I encourage you to share as much as possible.

A sitemap allows visitors an overall look at your site and its content. It is also helpful to search engines when they index your site. If your site is small, you may not need one, but they are useful.

Privacy policies and disclaimers are important for sites that collect personal information and provide informational resources. You want your visitors to know how their information is used once in your possession and you also want to make sure you are not legally liable for how people use the information you provide.

Go Forth and Fill Your Website
After all this, you may still feel like you’re not sure what should be on your site–As I said, this is not a simple process. However, if you answer the questions provided and plan your site from there, you will be led to your desired outcome, an effective site for your small business. Take your time, evaluate your purpose and format your website accordingly, your small business is worth it.

Kelly Biedny is the owner of Kleobell Creative Business Solutions - http://www.kleobell.com. Her areas of expertise include branding/image development, communication/marketing, web development and project management. For more information about creating an effective website for your small business, check out the Resource Library at kleobell.com.