Lately I’ve come across a lot of situations with new clients where they are having trouble getting access to their existing source files or getting their current providers to cooperate in many ways. So today I’m going to talk about three business fundamentals that should be established when starting a website.
1. Establish Ownership. The first and most important one of these principals is to own everything – your domain name and all of your content (words, pictures, logos, graphics, videos, etc.). There are many, many companies who will offer you great deals up front (such as a “free” website for a year) but then retain ownership of your site, so you are left with little options or flexibility. Although the initial cost may be higher, establishing ownership will pay dividends throughout the lifespan of your website by assuring that certain barriers to progress will not be imposed.
2. Have Complete Access to Your Content. In many (if not most) cases, there is one major exception to the “establish ownership” rule and that is in regards to hosting. Most small businesses just do not have the time, resources, or know-how to manage their own hosting servers so it makes sense find an established hosting company to handle these tasks. However, when you employ a hosting company, it is important that you have direct access to all your files via FTP. Many small business owners don’t understand the process or the importance of this ability, but by having full access a professional developer can instantly add, modify, or delete any website item on your behalf.
3. Adaptability and/or Agility. This is the only one of the three which actually deals with website design (my specialty). The basic point here is that the online universe is rapidly evolving and it is important that your website’s design has the ability to integrate newer features, technologies, and design features. Of course, this is much more of an art than a science because none of us know which innovations are on the horizon. But by keeping your site agile and not “painting yourself into a corner” with too many static features and dependencies, you and your developer will maximize the possibilities for the future.
It is hard to believe that July is almost gone and summer is about to enter into the home stretch. To help ease the transition of “summer days drifting away”, 33 Dimensions is running a special now through September 30th with a further offer for free consultation. If you are thinking about getting started online, check out this handy list of 10 steps you should take to establish a strong web presence. It can be an excellent orientation for anyone new at this or a great refresher for someone with more experience.
Enjoy the summer everyone!
Ric Albano Owner and Chief Web Designer
33 Dimensions LLC
Late Summer Spectacular
Now through September 30th, 33 Dimensions will be offering a 33% discount on all website design, development, and implementation as well as online marketing and multimedia services. Further, we will be offering a free 30-minute consultation to all qualified prospective clients in order to help you determine which customized services best fit your needs.
Client News
The Cornerstone Culinary Kitchen has scheduled classes right through the end of the calendar year with their fantastic New Year’s Eve Dinner. Check out the full culinary schedule. The website was launched by 33 Dimensions on May 6th and is a companion site to the Cornerstone Coffeehouse.
The Kids Theatre News, Central PA site, launched earlier in the spring, has gotten tremendous feedback as a resource for theatre performances, auditions, classes, camps, workshops, and more. Soon we will be building websites for other geographic areas, following the same basic pattern. Stay tuned.
Yoga 4 Healthful Living has set their schedule for the rest of 2013, including classes, workshops, and special events. Check out the website for further information.
On June 30th, Classic Rock Review reached the halfway point of its “five year mission”. With this threshold crossed, the site is expanding beyond just the regular album reviews with many new features including a new user group on LinkedIn and the introduction of select video album reviews.
We strive for the growth and success of all our customers!
Once you make the decision to establish a strong Web presence for your business, there are several steps that should be taken in order to build this online foundation. The process may seem a bit cumbersome or even overwhelming at first, and getting used to new technologies and fully realizing their benefits takes a little discipline and patience. However, while each business may vary on their specific requirements, the following ten items are general enough to be utilized by most business start-ups.
The first three steps should be done in this order.
1. Create and Register Your Domain Name
Establishing a domain is where your online life begins. The trick is finding one which isn’t already being utilized. If you’re lucky (like we were) you can use the dot-com of the exact name of your business. In all likelihood, you may have to be a little creative. There are many online tools for checking if a domain name is available and registering a domain is still pretty inexpensive at about $15 per year.
2. Find the Right Hosting Plan
“Hosting” is the physical location where your website will reside. While it is certainly possible to host a site on your own computer, it is not optimal in most situations because your computer would have to available to international traffic 24/7 and, without advanced security, may be vulnerable to cyber attacks. For these reasons, most small business owners will enlist a professional hosting company to host their website(s) with costs that can range widely, depending on the type of hosting. When choosing the right hosting plan, you want to get enough storage, bandwidth, adaptability, security, and performance without going overboard and incurring unnecessary costs.
3. Building Your Website
This is, by far, the most important, complex, yes stress-inducing step in establishing your online presence. There are literally a million ways to go, from companies with big names which will offer you “free” business websites (of course, they’re not really “free”) to an assortment of web design firms and freelancers. Here are some of the vast subjects which may need to be considered and/or included with your website:
The Message – the most important information that you want conveyed about your business, from its location and hours of operation to what service it provides and need it fulfills.
Branding – the logo, colors, styles, and appropriate look/feel along with any trademarks or catch phrases.
User Experience (UX) – a simple, concise, and consistent design throughout the website which gives the user the ability to logically navigate and find vital information.
Content Management – a system which allows for easy updates and additions without “breaking” the original design or UX.
Responsive Design – designing your website to “respond” to any screen size on any Internet-ready device by presenting the most optimal display.
Website Maintenance – keeping your site fresh, relevant, and secure.
Steps 4-10 can be done in any order (or all at the same time), after the first three steps have been completed.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is an ongoing process of keeping your page relevant to search engines and achieving the best search results. Each year, this process gets more and more complex as major search engines like Google constantly change their algorithms in order to produce the most valid and natural results for any searched word or phrase. Optimizing a website involves several diligent practices:
Solid HTML Design – the foundation of good SEO is clean and professional design. Avoid “website builder” tools if at all possible.
Page Title and Descriptions – succinctly describing the page’s content.
Use of Relevant Keywords – when posting articles to align with the page’s title and description.
Non-duplicated Copy – the latest search engine algorithms penalize sites for duplicated articles and page titles.
A Constant Stream of Fresh Content – with a site map which is updated regularly.
Analytics – the art of monitoring a website’s performance and making adjustments accordingly.
5. Social Networking
In today’s world, it is important for businesses to establish a presence on social media. While some dismiss social media as a fad which will soon run it’s course, there is little doubt of the advertising and awareness value of a social media presence. While Facebook and Twitter are the most popular and have the most users (so they are usually the first social media channels utilized), there are a few other technologies and techniques businesses should consider.
LinkedIn – many experts say LinkedIn is critical for businesses, as it connects you with other businesses. Along with your personal page on LinkedIn page, you should also establish a LinkedIn company page.
Google + – Google has been increasingly tying some of its SEO with its own social media channel (more on this in step #10).
YouTube – a free and easy way to promote your business with short (often homemade) videos. YouTube also allows most videos to easily be embedded in your website and many other social channels.
Local Citations – claim your physical address by registering with Yelp, Google Places, and other local search sites. Be sure to be consistent and use the same format, spelling, and syntax for your physical address (without abbreviations) wherever it is listed.
6. Email and Marketing
Recent studies have shown that, despite the meteoric rise of social media, Email marketing far surpasses any social media medium when it comes to return on investment. While this is one of the more highly regulated areas of the online experience, there are several fine services which help you manage and gather contacts and construct professional Email newsletters while keeping your company compliant with spam laws.
7. Cloud Storage
This is a relatively new but fast growing requirement for an online presence. It is important to be able to quickly and effectively share files, documents, and media using a business-oriented storage service. This is also often used as a safeguard for disaster recovery. Being so new, there are many (relatively untested) options to choose from, but some of the emerging leaders in this market include; Dropbox, Google Cloud Storage, and Carbonite.
8. eCommerce
We’re all in business to get paid and it has become increasingly easier to accept payments online. With Ecommerce, there is a wide range of possibilities, from simple PayPal transactions to complex online shopping carts which require huge databases to function. Further, recent years have brought us great online invoicing services like Fresh Books and cool mobile credit card scanners like Square.
9. Security
This is probably the most gut-wrenching subject to think about, but also the most important. Truth is, there are less than honorable people out there who think it is good sport to prey on honest services, businesses, and consumers. While the dynamic nature of technology makes it hard to pinpoint exact measures (books have been written and will be re-written), a balanced, common sense approach should prevail.
10. Your Toolbox
This is an ever-expanding, catch-all of “other” online tools which may be beneficial to your business:
Surveys – attractive ways to spark interest, there are several free and low-cost services available.
Virtual Phone Numbers – it is getting hard to justify a traditional land line and many of us do not want to use our cell phones as official business lines. An emerging service is “virtual” phone numbers, which route customers domestically and internationally and can provide a 1-800 number.
CRM – A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool is like an electronic “Rolodex” which not only stores your contacts, but is also interactive with many other of the online tools and channels mentioned above.
Google
One more thing. While I tried to stay as general as possible with these ten items, the truth in mid-2013 is that you’ll find Google involved in most of these steps (probably all seven of the bottom steps). If you have a Gmail account, that account is now your login for Google +, Google Places, Google Maps, Google Drive, AdWords, Analytics, Webmaster Tools, YouTube, and scores of other related services (including the good ole search engine itself). While there is no doubt that this can be a great convenience (not to mention virtually free), we can only hope that competition will spread these services out in the future while maintaining the incredible technical advances of recent years.
This date has become known around my house as “Moving Day” due to the amazing coincidences of big events on this date through the years. Starting in 1996, when my wife Karyn and I moved into our first home on June 9th of that year. Two years to the day, on June 9, 1998, we bought our first home together in Drums, Pa, where we stayed for six years. On June 9, 2004 we signed a lease on a townhouse in Silver Spring Township as we migrated to the Harrisburg area due to my employment at the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which began a year earlier on (you guessed it) June 9, 2003. Seven years ago today, on June 9, 2006, we closed on the sale of our current home in the Middletown area (where we plan on staying for a while). Finally, it was on June 9, 2011 when 33 Dimensions began to officially operate as an LLC.
So what’s in store for today? Well, while we’re not physically “moving” anywhere, we are vastly traversing new frontiers as an expanding small business, especially with respect to the new services we now offer our clients.
Ric Albano Owner and Chief Web Designer
33 Dimensions LLC
News from 33 Dimensions
It is estimated that about 4-6 weeks ago (sometime in late April or Early May), the threshold was crossed where more people access the internet via a mobile device than those who access using traditional desktops or laptops. Further, it is highly unlikely that this trend will ever reverse. With this in mind, 33 Dimensions is now developing websites using Responsive Design, which adapts and optimizes the site for any screen size, whether desktop, tablet, or mobile. We have also recently re-designed our own website using responsive design.
Some other new services which we are now offering include Video Editing and productions of montage style promotional videos, Graphic Design, and a full range of Social Media services.
Client News
The Cornerstone Culinary Kitchen has scheduled classes right through the end of the calendar year with their fantastic New Year’s Eve Dinner. Check out the full culinary schedule. The website was launched by 33 Dimensions on May 6th and is a companion site to the Cornerstone Coffeehouse.
The Kids Theatre News, Central PA site, launched earlier in the spring, has gotten tremendous feedback as a resource for theatre performances, auditions, classes, camps, workshops, and more. Soon we will be building websites for other geographic areas, following the same basic pattern. Stay tuned.
Over the past week, Big Blue Bullfrog has covered a large range of subjects from the latest movie and television reviews to NBA Finals to an Exposé on the legitimacy of other major reviewers. Much more interesting things to come!
Yoga 4 Healthful Living has set their schedule for the rest of 2013, including classes, workshops, and special events. Check out the website for further information.
We strive for the growth and success of all our customers!
It is hard to believe that July is almost gone and summer is about to enter into the home stretch. To help ease the transition of “summer days drifting away”, 33 Dimensions is running a special now through September 30th with a further offer for free consultation. If you are thinking about getting started online, check out this handy 
Once you make the decision to establish a strong Web presence for your business, there are several steps that should be taken in order to build this online foundation. The process may seem a bit cumbersome or even overwhelming at first, and getting used to new technologies and fully realizing their benefits takes a little discipline and patience. However, while each business may vary on their specific requirements, the following ten items are general enough to be utilized by most business start-ups.
June 9th
