E-Commerce & Internet a personal guide by MBGJ.      (page contains anchors to glossary and direct links)

Why Internet and is it the right place for me and/or my company ?

The very simple answer is yes definitely regardless of business, size and language.

The Internet is well on it's way to become the world-wide primary place for information in it's broadest sense and therefore business as well. The question can only be how , how much, how to secure, how to grow.

First here are some rules derived out of own experience :

Keep your independence. This might be a bit more expensive but having your own Domain and e-mail address pays when you want to move services and expand beyond the capabilities of your ISP.

Never use your advertising agency to run your web sites.

Only if your agency has a proven track record let them design your web sites.

Use a specialist company to host your web sites , your ISP is providing Internet access and may not be best positioned to run your pages.

Get your name(s) registered and go for the the big registration (com/org/net) as a local registration (e.g. co.uk or de) might limit you and project a local appearance.

Be committed to check or let it be checked  your e-mail at least twice a day preferably 7 days a week. Don't forget you may get 499 junk mails and one serious contact request, believe me it's worth it. If you can't at least use an autoreply program so the sender at least get's an impression you care.

The eight steps to your presence on the Internet

1. Get registered, preferably as COM ORG or NET. There are services out there that ease the paperwork and offer you valuing service with no obligations.

2. Look at web sites of major companies and get some basic design ideas. E.G. usage of frames, pictures, text and background. Remember this medium is like a 10 second spot on TV and contrary to Revlon and IBM you will have to convey your basic messages fast and simple. The equivalent of zapping is onward surfing before a site is fully loaded.

3. The minimum to design is a home page, a link page and e-mail or inquiry page. You can do this yourself using products like Frontpage or AOLpress, use your advertising agency or use a web designer from the Internet. The latter is straight forward : look at pages on the net you like they usually contain a small icon of the designer and contact them by praising and asking for a fixed price design offer. Your ultimate page host may have offers as well.

4. Check the design by asking friends and associates to give you an opinion.

5. Activate by submitting (or letting submit) to your web host.

6. Submit your home page to the most used search engines. Hybrids will find your site within 3-4 weeks see also design tips.

7. Test and monitor e-mail or inquiry form at least once a day or incorporate an autoreply program. Don't forget the Internet works 7 days a week 24 hours world wide !!!. The alternative is to have an 0800 number with no phone plugged in.

8. Be patient , check search engines for your listing and keep developing additional pages.

If for whatever reason you feel you require more help and guidance there is a lot out there (click here).

All this may sound complicated and may put you off . Don't it is like a driving license the longer you wait the more complicated and restrictive it may get. Once mastered and put into practice it becomes second nature and like in real live you use the major rules and techniques subconsciously. And like in real live you can use an automatic gearbox, air-condition and there are taxis and public transport.  

MBGJ.ORG can do/support all stages as well, although we require our clients to be committed, get involved to a certain degree and have the recourses to monitor and respond as it is your Internet personality not ours.

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Quick glossary

Registration : COM, NET & ORG are world-wide domains handled by the Internic, whereas CO.UK, DE are national registrations.

Frames : are the latest development to allow partitioning of pages. Typical usage is a header and a side bar so when the main body changes this remains. Advantage are less development for larger sites, coherent display of company and logo, visibility of content of whole site and easier navigation. Disadvantage: web crawlers can not interpret frames. Loading of initial page may take longer. Avoid complicated pages and design see design tips.

Link page : Page designated to provide links to other sources on the Internet. For example.

Design tips :

General : Use easy and readable colour designs. Funky is tempting but hard on the eye. Movement distracts so only use it if really necessary. Text needs to be easy readable and not all browsers support everything. HTML offers functionality so there is no need for various fonts and sizes. Advertising is different on the Net to other media like print, TV and Radio, although you can combine features of all three. Always allow the user / surfer to decide where to go what to do next. Avoid the page maze. Provide some relevant links to other sites. Web crawlers and hybrids are not very good at reading framed pages. Either have your main or index page unframed or have all relevant fact about your site in a hidden and unframed page available. Don't forget to put in a good page for links to other URL's or sites. This may improve your index position on hybrid search engines.

Pictures : say more than a thousand words, unfortunately they may take long to load. Text explaining your site while picture(s) are loading is very important.

Avoid : complex designs as they may make the text jerky while the pictures and graphics load.

Loading time : why not inform the surfer that a particular page may take a while as it contains a wealth of information ? Always inform if you wish to load COOKIES and design without them as the target browser may automatically reject them.

Page maze : Make sure there is always an easy way back to the top and to the main page.

E- mail & enquiry : Allow for e-mail and/or enquiry but make sure you can monitor not doing this is a very secure way to prevent visitors coming back. Just as an example Charles Schwab even answers to empty e-mails.

HTML : hyper text mark up language gives functionality by allowing links within the text to either your own pages or the wealth of information on the Net. HTML explained.

URL : Universal resource locator a unique world wide address either by name (Domain) or number (IP addressing)

Domain : World wide unique name of a site. E.G. MBGJ.ORG URL : Universal resource locator or unique address where to find an information on the Internet. It's like a telephone directory either by domain and index or by direct number (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)., ALTAVISTA.COM..... this is usually given a unique class D address. The Internic hold two addresses the ultimate target and the nearest gateway.

IP Addressing : The doted unique address of a domain / information source as this can be a single computer, a hosted site or a complete corporate network. (E.G. 195.0.20.xxx)

IP Classes : AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD Only C and D class addresses are still available. Only if you are a rather large organisation will you be able to obtain a C class address. The advantage of having your own address is important if you wish to remain totally independent. Every provider will allocate you from their own address bands (usually A or B) but if you want to change later this might be problematic. You only need one D class address as you can easily route traffic on your own network using address translation etc. (Want to know more e-mail or see xxxxxxxxx)

Host your web site : A company specialised in running servers and giving access from the Internet to your information and your domain, so you don't have to worry about availability, bandwidth, viruses etc. You may require a ISP to give you access to the host for maintenance and e-mail. The advantage is independence as you can change your host and/or ISP at any time should they not perform, without the need to inform all your contacts.

ISP : Internet service provider the context here is a company or organisation that provides you with access to the Internet e.g. BT, TESCO, AT&T . This is to give you permanent or dial up connection at local rates.

Hybrids : Search engines are databases loaded and verified by a human interface. Web crawlers are permanently scanning the net for new sites and to verify that indexed sites still exist and may not have any human interface. Most search engines now are a combination or hybrid form. It may take 3-4 weeks before a crawler finds and indexes a new site. Submitting to a human interface may result in slightly better times but there is no guarantee.

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