MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT WEBSITES

First of all, let me start by letting you know, if you are feeling anxious about having a website for you and or your company, don't feel you are alone. Even if you are only creating a website for the purpose of letting customers know "you are here", a website will have the potential to bring you new clients and will enable communication between you and the world of the internet. That being said, lets look at some of the common misconceptions people may have about websites.

Please note that the following are somewhat typical business practices and don't only come from me, but from others who are in business as well
NOW THAT I FINALLY HAVE A WEBSITE MY BUSINESS WILL SKYROCKET
Just because people may start going to your new website doesn't mean that it will turn into successful sales for you. What you will have to initiate is a means of getting people from the website to your door. A nice, professional looking website will definitely give you an added edge, but finding a way to monitor new customers as a result will be an important thing for you to do. Even putting the website on search engines like google, and yahoo could take years before your company is one of the first listed.

COPYING THE COMPETITION WILL PROMOTE A POTENTIAL AUDIENCE
This is a bit of a touchy area because,  I believe it's inevitable that something you have on your site will also be shared by other sites. One of my personal feelings is you want your website to be "as much about  you and your business endeavor" as you can get it. That also means being as unique as you can be within the structure of whatever it is you want to convey. The old adage that copying competition is flattery does hold true. In fact to the point that they may go to your competition because of it. Be yourself and offer as much as you can while still making the website easy to read and navigate.  

EVERYTHING SHOULD BE ON THE OPENING PAGE
People are getting very used to being on the internet to look for things. Your opening page should be eye-catching, concise, and offer a brief description about you or your company. (unless you for some reason are doing a one-page tell all) Keep the website as interesting as you can and update it as regularly as your company grows and changes.

THE MORE BELLS AND WHISTLES I HAVE, THE BETTER IT WILL LOOK
Many people still use dial-up as a means to access the internet. The more "gadgets" you use on your site, the longer it may take for them to download your page or site. In fact, potential clients may not even stay on long enough to wait. Use what you have to use to get the idea or point across to your base, but try to stay away from lengthly add-ons that may cause you to lose potential customers. (I should note that if you have pictures of your product, or you are a musical group that wants to show people and places you play at, you have to do what is necessary and that is understood)

BUILDING A WEBSITE SHOULD BE AN EASY TASK
This may be true for a one page, tell all site. Even then, depending upon what you want on the site, it will definitely take time. If you are indeed going to build your own website, don't rush it, in particular if for a business. Should you already have some knowledge of web-site creation, it will still take many hours, weeks, or even months  to construct a professional looking website. If you are going to add photographs, music, special pages or if you are going to be delving into HTML, more time will be needed.

   
 
 
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