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In
preparation for having a website, there are many things for you to think
about: |
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| Location |
We must know where your website will reside on the
World Wide Web. |
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Do you know where it
will be located? |
| Website |
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Who is your ISP? (Internet Service
Provider e.g. Cox, Time Warner, ATT) |
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What is your e-mail address?
(yourchosenname@providername.
net or .com or .org) |
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With your account, are you allowed space for a
website? |
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How much space? (e.g. 10MB
or 2GB) |
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What are the rules? |
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If you don't have any of the above, it is
possible to get space for free (e.g. on Yahoo). |
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The downside of free space is that your info is
surrounded by advertisements-- |
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which many people find distracting and annoying. |
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Sometimes, you can join an existing site of a
common interest (e.g. Art Places), by paying fees to the site owner. |
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There are some inexpensive web hosting sites--to
whom you pay a fee for renting web space--which usually include one or more
e-mail names. |
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Domain Name |
A domain name of your
choice (yourchosenname.com or .net or .org) can be purchased for about
$9.00/year. |
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Objectives |
Why do you want a website? |
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What are you trying to accomplish with your web
pages? (mission statement) |
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Website |
What are your goals and objectives? |
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Who do you want to view your web pages? (target audience) |
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Do you want to sell anything through your
website? A few items or lots of items? |
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If so, do you know how you will handle buy/sell
transactions and the exchange of money? |
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Example of Objective: |
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Lola Juris wanted a website to display
photographic images of her watercolor paintings to prospective buyers. |
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Site to include photos of paintings, with sizes
and prices, contact info, location, etc. |
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Also include photo of artist, bio, philosophy of
painting, and lists of organizations, etc. |
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Resulting website:
"Watercolor Paintings by Lola Juris" |
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Appearance |
Do you have a vision of what you want your
website to look like? (site design) |
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of |
The possibilities for colors, styles,
organization, etc. are nearly limitless. |
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Website |
Do you have a color
scheme in mind? If so, why do you want to use those colors? |
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(I was using warm
colors for this site until I decided to use the images of the iceberg and
planet earth.) |
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Have you noticed an existing site and thought,
"I would like a web page similar to this one?" |
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What is the URL of one or more websites you
liked and thought a similar site would be appropriate for your website? |
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What aspects of those sites do you like and
dislike? |
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What tone do you want to represent you (or your
business)? |
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E.g. formal, serious, businesslike,
straightforward, casual, warm, lighthearted, humorous, silly, elegant... |
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Preparation |
Will your site include photos and other
graphics? |
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Do you have a logo? |
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Elements |
In what form are your images? |
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(e.g. photos on paper that need to be scanned,
or digital photos on a disk, or ?) |
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Web Pages |
In what format? (e.g. TIFF, GIF, JPEG) |
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What needs to be done to get those images
web-ready? |
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(E.g. do photos need to be modified/enhanced,
i.e. color adjusted, brightness, contrast, resized, etc.?) |
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If so, the best format to start with would be
digital photos in TIFF format, or large JPEG files. |
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Can you provide good quality photos, or do you
need a photographer? |
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Robert Boyd may be available as
photographer if your location is near Vista, CA, (or near Oconomowoc, WI,
sometimes.) |
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Example of Preparation: |
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Lola Juris (1)had a photographer photograph her
paintings, and |
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(2)process those into slides (because juried
shows and some galleries still use slides to view prospective artwork.) |
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(3) Lola had the slides translated to a disk as
large TIFF or JPEG files. |
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(4) Then each image needed to be straightened,
cropped, adjusted for brightness, and contrast, and adjusted for color to
more closely match the color of the original painting, then (5) resized and
saved for the web in JPEG format (all of which Bob Boyd and I do using
Photoshop Elements). |
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Designing |
Who is going to design your website? |
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Can you do it yourself, or do you need to hire
someone to do it for you? |
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Website |
Your answer depends on how
computer savvy you are, |
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whether or not you have the time and skills, how
much money you are willing to invest, etc. |
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If you feel you have a
tight budget, you can
probably find a web hosting site with ready-made templates to enter your info
into. |
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(I personally am never satisfied with templates
because they never seem to be just right for my needs.) |
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Assuming you are unable to create
your own website, or you know that your time is best spent doing what you do
best, how much money are you willing to spend for website development? |
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How important is quality? |
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Does close count? |
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Or do you want a web designer who is a bit
obsessive-compulsive perfectionistic... |
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Timeline |
Do you need to have your site up and running by
a certain date, |
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or is the timeline flexible? |
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Maintaining |
How often will your
website need to be updated? |
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What types of changes
need to be made? |
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Thinking |
I have given you much to think about to help you
prepare for having your own website. |
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Deciding |
If you are ready to proceed, and would like to
hire me to design your website, |
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this is how I see the next steps: |
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Design Fees |
1. Read about my
design fees, and if you are comfortable with all
that: |
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Application |
2. Fill out the
Application so that both you and I are clear about what we are
attempting to accomplish. |
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3. Submit the
application to me. |
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4. I will read what you have written and
will contact you. |
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5. Together we will discuss plans for your
site, and will decide what the next steps will be. |
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