What is the benefit of a website for you or your business.

Why should your business consider a professional designed website?

Reasons for having a professional designed website.

1. Somewhere in the world somebody wants what you have to offer.


2. A net presence: A definitive presence in the world market. All serious business have a website.


3. 24/7: Your website is communicating your message 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. While you are sleeping your website is working for you.


4. Sell online: You can sell to anyone in the world that has Internet access with and online store.


5. Attracts potential customers that would not normally visit your business.


6. Local business can help local customers by posting important information.


7. Customers can print out coupons to bring to the store. This saves on printing costs.


8. Travelers to your area can view your services much easier than in the phone book.


9. Worldwide: your website is accessible to anyone around the world for the same cost.


10. It answers your customers question when they have them. When your customer seeks what you have to offer they are more receptive to what you have to offer.


11. Informed consumer: Your website can offer all the information your customer needs to know before they make their decision. An informed consumer is happier and loyal customer. They will sometimes help you sell your products.


12. More bang for your buck: Simply put, where else are you going to reach a world market at such a low cost? No media forms for marketing can compare for cost.


13. Dynamic: your website is dynamic and can be changed in minutes, over and over again with little or no cost. Other forms can become out of date and can become costly to change. No other media form can achieve this.


14. Improved customer service: With FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) you can answer almost all of you customers questions. This means they do not have to call your customer service department, which can save you money and save your customer frustration.


15. Track. Your website can track statistics on how many and where you customer came from.


16. Searchable: Your website can be searched. This makes it easier for your customer to find what they are looking for in a shorter amount of time.


17. Non-linear: Any page of your website can be viewed whenever. Your customer does not have to view your content sequentially, as in a book. This allows you customer to find and read what they want in the shortest amount of time.


18. You can test new products and services fast, efficiently, and at a low cost.


19. Your business can branch into new market not yet considered.

Three steps to designing a website. Define, Develop, Execute.

1. Define your target market.


2. Develop your site to effectively cater to that market


3. Execute by posting your website and announce it’s existence.

Why use a professional Webmaster?

You do not need to use a local Webmaster. A professional Webmaster can develop your website from anywhere around the world.

A professional Webmaster knows all aspects of design and execution for the World Wide Web. A Webmaster is a:

• Programmer
• Marketer
• Copywriter
• Publicist
• Promoter

A professional Webmaster stays abreast of all new technologies and knows how to implement them efficiently and effectively.

Website Marketing

The right marketing is getting the customer that wants your product to know what you have to offer.

Website marketing consists of all of these in the list below:

• Traditional methods
• SEO
• Search Engine Submission
• Linking with similar sites
• Sponsored links

Traditional methods for promoting your website.

Some of the most important methods available for promoting your website are surprisingly traditional:

• Tell people about it verbally.
• Tell them about it in writing.
• Put your website address on everything you can – business cards, brochures, letterhead, print ads, the side of your vehicles, the signature on your e-mail, and your company pens.

SEO

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines.

SEO is marketing by understanding how search engines work. SEO efforts may involve optimizing a website's coding, presentation, and structure, without making very noticeable changes to human visitors.

The majority of visitors get to your website by doing a search on one of the major search engines such as All The Sites, All The Web, AltaVista, Google, Infoseek, MSN, and the Open Directory, Etc..

When writing code and content in a website it must be optimized to aid search engines. This makes a higher success rate that the visitor to your website is interested in what your website is offering.

The technology is always changing. What was considered acceptable practices a few years ago are now obsolete.

Submission to Search engines

Submission to all of the major directories and search engines such as All The Sites, All The Web, AltaVista, Google, Infoseek, MSN, and the Open Directory, Etc..

Linking with similar sites:

Linking with similar sites: Having other sites show a link to yours can be an effective way to help increase your ranking in the search engines, especially if the other site is very popular.

Sponsored links:

Sponsored links: Google and many other search engines offer “sponsored links”, basically paid ad space. Sometimes these ads work, sometimes they don’t.

At Body Tone Multimedia we design your website to maximize, your search engine position.

Body Tone Multimedia submits your website to all of the major search engines and directories.

Body Tone Multimedia does on going maintenance and modifications to insure what the search, engine need is in your content and code.

The cost of a regular website.

In the industry a regular (not E-commerce) website can range from free to $25,000+. With such a wide margin, how can anyone decide without getting utterly confused? To aid you let’s categorize what the groups are and explain each.

Free websites low cost websites. The advantages and disadvantages. From $0 to $39 per month.

Advantages:

• You have full responsibility for the website.
• Low cost: This can publicize information on what you are offering for little money.
• Can be used to test markets and ideas.

Disadvantage:

• You are responsible for developing the website. If you are not Internet savvy you could be spending hours trying to get things to work.
• You do not have control over the code underneath the pages, which search engines use to find you on the web.
• There is advertising and annoying pop up windows to direct your customer to somewhere else. These websites are using your content to sell their items.
• These pop-up windows and advertisement makes your business look less professional. Visitors will associate an unprofessional website with your business’s attention to detail.
• There is no publicity or marketing strategy for your website. It is all up to you.
• Templates are used: You cannot customize your website to meet your and your customer’s needs.
• You do not own the website.
• E-commerce: Shopping carts, merchant accounts will cost extra and is your responsibilityand may not work or be supported.

Low cost from an amateur. The advantages and disadvantages $25 -$40 per hour, $100 -$300 per website.

Advantages:

• Low cost: This can publicize information on what you are offering for little money.
• Can be used to test markets and ideas.

Disadvantage:

• May be unreliable.
• They are usually inexperienced untrained individuals (student, etc) who may have a talent for making pretty websites, but have no idea what it takes to make the website SEO (Search Engine Optimized) and functional.
• They may not know about content editing, keywords and link placement.
• Some may host your website on their friends server with no backup and uptime guarantee.
• The bandwidth of one server can be overwhelmed and crash. Your website will not be on the web.
• If is a power where that server is housed and there is no redundant server elsewhere. Your website will not be on the web.
• Customer service can be intermittent. They will get to it when the can.
• They may not perform any publicity for your website.
• Your website cannot grow when you need it to grow.
• Some amateurs use free websites (mentioned in the first catagory) and template, which you do not own and cannot customize for your customers needs.
• May not be capable to set-up and execute an E-commerce solution.

Middle to high. The advantages and disadvantages $300 -$25,000 +, $50 to $150 per hour.

Advantages:

• Worry free. You pay for the service and get it.
• Can expand and customize your website to cater to you and your customers needs.
• You own the website and if you wish to switch to a different Webmaster, you can.
• Can develop and execute E-commerce solutions.
• Knows the latest technologies.

Disadvantage:

• Cost can be price prohibitive?

E-Commerce Websites.

An E-commerce store is a website that sells products and services.

• E-Commerce website are an additional cost added to the regular website cost.
• A professional E-Commerce website can cost between $5,500 to $7,000.
• It needs to be maintained.

To accept payments for your products and services on the Internet, a Merchant Account, Payment Gateway with a Secure Web Certificate, and a shopping cart is needed to allow you to accept credit card payments directly from your website.

PayPal.

PayPal is a service, which allows people to send and receive money safely and securely. It allows you and your customers to exchange money through a neutral source. You simply open a PayPal account (for free), and place "buy me" buttons on your web site.

Google Checkout.

Google Checkout is an online payment processing service provided by Google aimed at simplifying the process of paying for online purchases. It is very similar to PayPal

If you have a product but cannot justify the cost of a E-commerce website, or want to increase your product’s exposure, follow this link to submit your product for review for placement on Body Tone Multimedia’s Store.

Content Writing

The old cliché that states the three most important things needed for business success is LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!, is not valid when you are on the World Wide Web. You already have location. The key to success in the Internet is CONTENT! CONTENT! CONTENT!

If you do not have anything say on your site, it is useless to you and your customer.

Writing the content

Some clients don’t like to write especially when it is about themselves or their business. It’s quite common, in fact, so if this describes you, you’re not alone.

Rather than writing your own content, and perhaps doing it poorly, it might be wise to hire someone

Need help writing content?

Don’t worry Body Tone Multimedia is here to help.
Follow the link below to learn About Body Tone Multimedia Writing Services.
We can help.

Domain Name.

Domain Name definition:

Domain Name:Domain name Letters and numbers that are used to name addresses on the Internet. For example BodyToneMultimedia.com. Also referred to as Website address and web address. These domain names need to be registered through separate companies known as Domain name registrar such as Network Solutions, for approximately $35 a year.

The following example illustrates the difference between a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a domain name:

URL: http://www.BodyToneMultimedia.com/index.html
Domain name: www.BodyToneMultimedia.com
Registered domain name: BodyToneMultimedia.com

Website Hosting.

Website files reside on special computers (known as "servers") that are hooked into the Internet 24 hours a day. These servers are maintained by hosting companies. That will keep your site online and accessible to the public at all times.

What Body Tone Multimedia can offer you?

• A complete custom website designed to meet your customer needs
• Content writing
• Domain registration
• Website promotion search engine placement
• Web hosting
• E-mail setup
• Website visitor statistics
• Website maintenance
• E-commerce web site design
• Website Template Creation
• Website redesigns and makeovers
• Logo Design and Banner design
• Graphic Design
• Favicon Design
• Search Engine Submission
• Meta tag insertion

Follow this link for Website Design Rates - industry, and Body Tone Multimedia's Rates for Website Design.