I have been designing websites for friends for awhile now and have decided to advertise my web design service along with my current computer repairs and service business. I know 90% of the small business owners in the town I live in through my full time job as a transport manager, so I hope to be able to provide web sites for many of them. One thing I have noticed whilst talking to them about web sites is that they have no idea about how it all works. I have come up with a leaflet that I can give to potential customers that explains the process in detail, and I would like to hear your comments on it.
(I have removed my company name for posting on this forum. All prices are in Australian $)
Dear
Thank you for your enquiry regarding our web page design service.
XXXX Computers provide a complete solution for getting your business online and reaching a potential customer base of millions of people world wide.
This leaflet is designed to help you understand the process of getting your business online and help you decide what type of web site you want for your business.
Domain name registration
Before you can have a website you need to register a domain name which is also known as your web address. Your domain name would look something like this.
www.yourcompanyname.com.au
The .com domain stands for “commercial” or “commerce” and the .au denotes the business is based in Australia.
The .au extension can only be used if you have a registered business with the same name as the domain name you wish to register. You can use the .com extension only such as
www.yourcompanyname.com .com extensions are cheaper to register than .au extensions however .au extensions will let your customers know that you are an Australian based business before they even get to your website.
XXXX Computers can register your chosen domain name through one of the many available domain name registrars. Fees are around $80 for two years for a .com.au domain and $14.00 for 1 year for a .com domain name.
Website hosting
Your company’s website needs to be hosted on a server. A server is a special computer designed to store customers websites on its hard disk and to send out (or serve) your websites pages, when requested by a customers computer. There are thousands of web hosting company’s world wide each charging different fees from $0 up to $1000.00 per month. What you pay will depend on what type of service you require and how many extra features you may need.
XXXX Computers can setup your web hosting from as little as $15.00 per month which includes e-mail/webmail and other special features.
Your Website
Your website and in particular your home page is the first page your customers see when they type in your web address. This is your gateway to the online community and millions of potential customers. Unrestricted by geographical boundaries, a web site can allow you to expand your business in a way you never thought possible.
It is important that your home page shows your customers what it is exactly that you do or sell. It needs to attract the customer’s interest and keep them there long enough that they will decide to navigate around your site. XXXX Computers can design a site that captures your customer’s interest and keeps them there, by using various web design techniques. We can add special features such as contact forms, product catalogues and shopping carts, photo galleries etc.
The cost to have a web site designed will vary on the amount of pages and extra features you require. As a guide a home page with one or two linked pages and a contact form will cost around $200.00, plus domain name registration and hosting fees.
Yes I want a website for my business, what do I do next?
Step 1 is to get an idea of what you want your website to look like. Perhaps you may have seen a website that caught your eye or you may have a colour brochure and you want your website to look similar. If you have no idea don’t worry, XXXX Computers can come up with a few different designs for you to choose from.
Step 2.You need to provide us with any written material and pictures you want on your website. Once again any brochures you may have are a good start or perhaps a newspaper advert you may have taken out. You can write your own content or give us some key points about your business and let us write the content for you. You can also provide your own photos and graphics or we can come to your business premises and take the photos needed.
Step 3.
Once we have the above material we can start work designing your website. At XXXX Computers you are under no obligation what so ever. If you do not like our designs we will re-design the whole site. If in the end we cannot come up with a design that you are happy with then you are under no obligation to pay.
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Thats all I have so far but will probably just finish off with how long it will take to design the website and then some contact information.
I would appreciate some comments on what you think?
Also I am not sure exactly what to charge. A company came through our town a month ago offering web site design for around $3000. Many businesses told them to forget it at that sort of price. I was going to work on my average hourly rate of $40.00 aust per hour. What do you think?
Thanks,
Trueman.
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