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A web design
starts with an idea, something you have in mind as to how you would like
your image to appear to everybody who will view your site. As you ponder
your online image the other thing you need to be thinking about is what
you want your website to do for you, your company or activity.
Your image is only restricted by your own imagination and your
ability to convey your ideas to the web designer who desires to work with
you. What I recommend to every one of my customers is to take the time to
look at several hundred websites already constructed and viewable on the
Internet, bookmark a number of these websites and send an email to us with
the "hyperlinks" attached to give us here at PageWorkz a general idea what
you wish for your image to appear as on the web. Please remember, your
image is not only what pictures or eye catching graphics you see, but the
layout (how the links are displayed as compared to the content on the rest
of the page), and overall functionality of the site. This seems to be the
hardest step for most of the people I've spoken to over the years as many
of my customers have absolutely no idea what they desire nor the time to
check things out for themselves. Please remember, a website is very
similar to your home or business front, if you're not comfortable with the
image it portrays for you, customers or viewers may feel the same way.
PageWorkz Web Solutions will do everything we can to give you a great site
with as much information as you provide for us.
The second item mentioned above our customers need to answer upon
initial contact is what kind of functionality you need for your website to
offer your visitors. Businesses who offer products (sale items) may
desire to sell these items online in an online store. A website along
these lines would require an e-commerce structure which is very involved
and costly but will pay for itself in a rather short amount of time while
businesses who offer services or information wouldn't need anything near
as complex. Organizations or sports entities may desire the ability to
keep in contact with their visitors via simple email or a little more
complex as comment forms or guest books, while other organizations may
desire a rather complex message board to allow for the ability to exchange
comments among its members.
Regardless which design you choose or how much you desire to offer
your visitors, you need to keep things as easy as possible so as to limit
confusion for said visitors. We at PageWorkz Web Solutions will take all
the time necessary to make your decided upon layout and content decisions
along with the functionality of your website easy for every visitor to use
thus desirable for many return visits.
There are three basic concepts of web site functionality:
Informative, Interactive, and E-Commerce. Please choose which of these
three you most desire upon placing your order.
Informative
sites provide your visitors information about your company or organization
only and are extremely limited when asking your visitors to participate
with you. Your visitors will need to send an email or contact you through
a provided telephone number or business visit to further their business
experience. Additional features, not included with the price of an
informative type website may be purchased extra to give you more of a feel
of an interactive type site without moving up to the next level in price
but like any other company, if too many of these extras are purchased, it
may be less expensive for you to actually choose a level for which these
items may be included.
Interactive
sites are the most common websites found on the internet today. These
sites allow you to stay in touch with your customers relatively easy while
giving your visitors a chance to provide information to you that you may
need at a future time. Although extras such as message boards are not
provided as a part of our Interactive Plan, people have found a bit of an
addiction to these site extras and have them added to their sites as a
vital part of their interactive experience. This website is an example of
an Informative website with Interactive features added. This gives you an
idea what can be done with very little work and more important to you,
very little extra costs.
E-Commerce
type sites are very involved and require a lot of time to construct
properly depending on your inventory and it's for this reason they present
the most cost to you. In essence when building an e-commerce style
website you are building a second store and you know how much time and
effort was put into building your current store front. Although we at
PageWorkz are not physically handling every item for sale like you did
when you built your initial store front, we are still handling each item
you carry, inventorying it with all of its vital information, cataloging
it, and making it presentable for your customers to gain as much knowledge
as possible about the product before they choose to purchase the item.
The good news though is that some racing teams have chosen to use
e-commerce type features within their interactive style websites in the
past which did not amount to as much money as a full e-commerce style
website. This will only work when presenting only a handful of items for
purchase. |