Seven steps to setting up online

By John Soderlund

 

Securing a presence on the internet is probably a lot easier than you imagine it to be. Below is a step-by-step approach to ensuring your website performs as you would like it to on the World Wide Web. For some of these steps, you may require outside assistance. For the most part, help is readily available in any of the areas in which you feel you may be lacking. At each step of the way, we offer a guide to the knowledge and equipment you'll need to get the job done and a rough estimate of the costs if you get others to do it.

 

1. Conceptualise your site (No cost)

Spend some time thinking about what you need your site to do. Is it simply a presence for yourself, offering basic information about the services you or your company offer? Or is it more of an interactive site aimed at getting visitors to make further contact with you? At the furthest end of the continuum, it may function as a store of sorts, allowing you to process credit card transactions, sell informational material, interact with potential or ongoing clients, or to provide therapeutic services to individuals or companies who seek your services.

2. Have a plan of action (Still no cost)

Once you have a good idea of what the site should accomplish, work on how you will go about selling your products or services. You may wish to retain an internet savvy consultant for a couple of hours to assist in this task and point you to the most obvious support services (many of which are free) and methods of conducting business online. You will probably begin with a home page, the first page visitors see on visiting your site. This should include pointers to the most enticing content you carry and to the services you offer.

Give much thought to ensuring that the content on your site is cutting edge and attractive to your target audience. In the internet world, quality of content is the only thing that's likely to bring visitors your way on an ongoing basis. Remember that your potential reach once you're on the internet is vast and without boundaries. Your marketing is far more likely to be effective if you specialise your content area, eg. eating disorders in a specific age group or therapy for children who suffer from depression. You'd be surprised how many potential clients and interested parties there are in the global internet community, no matter how narrow your focus. Chances are that you'll also find communities online which are useful to join to market your services and getting to them will cost you only a few hours online.

Give some thought at the early stages to how you will market the site once it's up and running. A common modus operandi for small-scale internet startups in drawing visitors to their sites is through the vast array of informal networks operating on the internet, which you may investigate cursorily at this stage (see Marketing your site, below, for more on this).

3. Writing the content (No cost if you can write)

The internet does not communicate like other media. It is quicker and caters to those who don't want to, or can't afford to, spend hours online sifting through your content. It's also a visual medium where boring content can be erased with a click of the button. Work on drawing your readers into the material with tersely written facts, information, sub-headings and illustrations, where appropriate. Keep the illustrations small to enhance downloading time and don't write more than about 600 words per page. Make sure the links from your home page are logical and provide the information the home page promised they would.

Your content may include:

* A home page which consists of an overview of what the site and you are about.

* Any number of information pages. If you are offering consultation on post-natal depression (PND), you may offer a page on the typical problems associated with this category of depression and how it presents, another on self-help information for sufferers or partners of sufferers of PND, a page of links to other information on depression generally, another on who you are and why you're the expert on this matter (with an e-mail link to your e-mail address for those who wish to request confidential advice) and a final page detailing your services. The site could also include a pre-designed, online form which users can submit to you if they wish to consult you on a paid basis, either online, on the telephone or in person.

* A "terms of use" page, explaining to potential clients the limits of your service, the limits of confidentiality of the site and how they can expect interactions with you to take place henceforth. Make sure you include a link to this contract in any forms you put online, ensuring that the senders of forms have read the contract. You may even e-mail a copy of the contract to users once they have signed up for whatever you are offering.

 

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