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How to Get the Most Out of a Webmaster
You have decided to put up a new
website. Congratulations! Now the work begins. Within
this article, are some items you will want to consider
as your website comes to life.
A webmaster would recommend that you have a domain
name that brings in at least one good keyword about
your website. The webmaster will help you with suggestions
to get a good domain name.
You also need to select the purpose
of the website. This is crucial. You need to know if
the website will be to drive leads to build a customer
list, whether you want people to fill out a form to
give you information on their situation if you are offering
real estate information, for example, or if you are
just looking to get information about you and your firm
out to the public. Do you want to use your website more
as a savings of time to send out reports to people that
request information? Do you want to portray an image
of a modern fast paced type of company or do you want
to portray an image of a down home southern charming
retail store? Do you want to direct them to a phone
line for more information or an autoresponder or maybe
sign up for an ezine? Depending on the needs of the
person behind the website, the webmaster can get a better
idea how to make the overall look and feel of the website,
so try to be clear on what you want your website to
accomplish.
You might also show the webmaster colors
you like and get their thoughts as to the colors that
move the visitor to certain actions. For instance, certain
shades of green portray a soothing feeling while red
jumps out at you and makes you want to take action.
Use bold colors sparingly.
The webmaster can also help you in regards
to the layout of the website, guiding the visitor through
the website by various links and graphics. Also, realize
that sometimes more words are not more effective. A
visitor will spend only a short amount of time viewing
your website unless you have effective headlines and
subtitles. If you have ideas you want to use, let your
webmaster know this before he starts to make the "bones"
of the website.
Another good thing to think about is
the buttons and what they will say. In other words,
how many do you really need to get your website point
across and what type of links would you need created
to accomplish that point? Changing text is easier than
changing buttons for a webmaster, so try to have some
idea what you want. Do not start out thinking you will
have a 5-8 page website and then add six more buttons.
This can lead to six more pages and you can expect a
price increase on the website design. Most webmasters
are pretty lenient, but do have to charge for extra
time and effort above the original price quote.
If you have any graphics you want to
use, gather them up and have them available from the
beginning for the webmaster. He will also have graphics
that he will add to make the website more interesting.
You will want to keep large graphics to a minimum. The
webmaster can resize them but note that clarity and
sharpness may be reduced. Most good webmasters can help
tremendously in this realm of making the images fit
your pages if the pictures you provide are clear and
crisp.
If you have the music clips or audio
clips that you want to use, be prepared to provide them
for the webmaster. He will require music clips in mp3
format most likely. He will also check various browsers
to make sure the clips are good quality in all browser
settings.
Provide the webmaster with all your
contact information and any comments he can use for
the "About Us" page. That would be items relative
to your business and awards you may have won, goals
of your company, little bits of personal information
about the partners or owners, how long the business
has been viable or how long you have been in this sort
of business, how long online, things like that help
a visitor to know you better and feel more comfortable
doing business with you. That should be the goal.
Templates have their place in the web
design process. Allow the webmaster to provide choices
and pick out two or three templates that would work
for you. Most good webmasters like to use pure html,
but some also will use the Front Page format or Dreamweaver.
The only reason for templates, in my mind, is to get
more of an idea what the customer wants his website
to look like. When the idea is presented by several
templates, then possibly designing a website based on
those ideas, is more effective. Do not count out a webmaster
that uses templates, but also, do not count out a webmaster
that takes template ideas and redesigns them to fit
your needs. Either will work and makes perfect sense
depending on the time and effort that is going to be
involved in creation of your new website.
Bottom line is consider your webmaster
an extension of your business. It will be up to you
to market your business, but having a good website should
be a collaboration of effort between you and the webmaster.
Your website can come alive with sound, graphics, and
colors. The clearer you can be on what you desire, the
more the webmaster has to work with and will be able
to satisfy you more thoroughly. Most people are amazed
at what webmasters can do with just simple outlines
of ideas!
Most webmasters want to make their customers
happy and will spend the time to work with you to make
sure your website is pleasing. Give them the courtesy
of being reasonable in your desires and needs and the
website creation experience will be a positive situation
for everyone.
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