Greetings everyone,

I just wanted to give a quick introduction so you may see me “in-person.”

Your website is a reflection of you and your business, and we all want to use our marketing materials so others learn about us and want to work with us. Use your website effectively: provide information, sell directly online, explain your process, and encourage your visitors to take action. My company 10K Webdesign helps you engage your customers and potential clients through a call to action.

Our focus is on supporting women of color in business: if you have an idea for your business or your website, let me know directly at monica (at) a successful woman (dot) com. I look forward to connecting with you… let’s make your idea a full-fledged reality on the web!

Our portfolio is here: www.10kwebdesign.com/portfolio.php and we do all kinds of projects for all ranges of budgets.

I look forward to hearing from you!

-Monica Flores

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Having a website is one of the most efficient ways to target your advertising dollars. It’s open 24/7, you have a way for potential customers to “visit” with you and learn about your offerings, you explain your process, show testimonials or former clients, and you have a much more expanded reach than a print media ad or paper directory.

All websites are made of a domain, a hosting package, and the actual files of your website.

To purchase domains and hosting, please make sure that the package you have offers PHP and mySQL and runs on a Linux server. These are the most commonly supported tools that web developers are familiar and comfortable working with.

There are a number of open source and free download packages available for you to build your site on. These are products that assist you in managing your content or publishing your blog. Many of these packages are easy to use and install for a basic version, although we suggest you consult with a web professional to fine-tune your display and add functionality.

NOTE! We resell domains and hosting through www.10KHosting.com (opens in new window). However, you may use another service. No domain or hosting plan should cost you more than $5/month for the hosting and $10/year for the domain. Watch out for unscrupulous service providers!!!

Tip: Multiple domains may point to one hosting package. For example, you may purchase variations on your name: www.you.com, www.you.org, and www.you.net, but only purchase one hosting package.

TO PURCHASE DOMAINS
1) www.10KHosting.com
Click on the second blue navigation button from the left: “Domain Names.”

Enter a domain name that you are seeking (checks to see if they are available)

We recommend you buy the following:
www.nameofyourbusiness.com
www.yourname.com

These domains become your permanent property.

2) Continue through the checkout process. We don’t recommend that you need any of the alternate options, you may “Continue to Checkout” at the bottom of each page. You may want to consider “private registration” so that your administration e-mail is not viewable to the general public. About half of our clients choose this option.

Before final checkout, make sure to add a hosting package.

TO PURCHASE HOSTING
1) www.10KHosting.com

The HOSTING is the actual computer where the files will reside. You typically need just one hosting package (about $4-5/month) for all your domain names.

2) Navigate to the third navigation link, “Web Hosting”
See listing of all hosting plans
with complete details and prices!

3) Navigate to “See all Plans”
Ideal for most individuals and small business.

4) Select Linux and ECONOMY PLAN (recommend 24 months at $3.95/month)

5) No other options necessary, e-mail forwarding and mailboxes are included. You can just scroll down to the bottom of each page and “Continue Shopping”

6) Follow through with credit card purchase (again, no other options are necessary for the functioning of the website). If you desire the “privacy” option, this gives you an alias so that your own name does not appear in the internet registries. This might be an option if you choose to keep your information private: about half of our clients choose this option.

7) On the shopping cart, you will receive:
Economy Hosting w/ PHP
Length: 1 Month(s) Sku: ####

as well as the domain names you have chosen.

8) During checkout, please select a login and pass under “Account Information” and forward that information to info (at) asuccessfulwoman.com so we can set up your blog using your control panel.

Making your website work for you (not you working for your website!)

So you’re thinking of putting your website online, you’ve done a couple of Google searches and you’re trying to understand all the different options out there. What now?

Developing a website really mirrors your own internal processes.

If you’re on a super tight budget and you need a basic, simple setup, you’re best off with a static HTML site. If you’re in this position, you probably don’t require a lot of changes or maintenance. Typically this is 5 to 7 pages of content.

Most static HTML sites are hand-coded in Textpad or Notepad, or developed using Dreamweaver or another packaged program. You might want to find a website template and have a designer adjust it for you. Remember to submit your site to the search engines and make sure that the code contains metawords and descriptions. Also budget some time/money for maintenance and additional pages. Eventually, you will upgrade to a CMS, but for now a static site will work for you.

If you have been maintaining your site yourself and you’re coming up on time limitations (who really wants to wade through a bunch of code!), or worse, you’ve been paying a web designer over and over to make minor changes, now is the time to consult with your web developer to create a more dynamic, database-driven content management system (CMS) approach.

A database-driven approach also works if you’re looking to start out with a more highly-functional site, (e-commerce, calendars, RSVPs, blogs, downloads, member-only content, photo galleries, etc.)

A CMS allows you to manage all your content and separate the content from the design/look-and-feel. A good CMS allows you or your data entry person to update content without having to understand FTP, HTML, CSS, javascript, or code.

If you’re going this route, you’ll want to organize your content into a “site map” that literally physically maps the different pathways that your users or potential users take as they visit your website. Who are the people visiting your site and what do you intend them to do there?

You’ll also want to create a wishlist with all the different functional items you want the site to have: do you need the ability to update your calendar? What about a registration form for events? What about a “what’s new” feature?

When you have all these separate components mapped out, it’s time to ask your web developer for a quote on encoding all of your content: this might take the form of different “phased stages” for your site. A good developer knows the time it takes to encode your site, based on your materials. He or she will charge you either a flat fee or an hourly rate with an estimate of how many hours it takes.

From that point, you’ll follow the developer’s timeline to see your website through completion: this means going through design samples, through construction and data entry, to testing, revisions, fine-tuning, site submissions and linking, and finally, your website launch and any training and follow-up.

The website process will mirror your organization’s growth, so as you have more resources available to invest in your marketing, you’ll be able to implement more and more functionality on your site, to the point that the website becomes one of the larger parts of your messaging and marketing.

You might want to start doing things like selling banner space or linking to sponsors on your site. You also may want to collect dues or other forms of revenue online, or you’ll want to charge members a regular fee to access higher value content.

Ideally, your web developer is right there with you!

Domain and hosting: 10khosting.com
Website design: 10kwebdesign.com