How Do I get a Website?

First, congratulations! If you are thinking about a new website, you are preparing to utilize the most inexpensive, most eyes per dollar, most globally reaching, most thorough, and most usable marketing vehicle in history. But, that's only the beginning. A web site can be much, much more.

Want to start a business but have limited cash? Forget rent. Forget staff. Forget electricity bills, merchandise racks, displays, cash registers, and cleaning supplies. Your web site can be your store. The only limitation? YOU. It can be as successful or not - depending on what you put into it.

How about communications? Your web site can be your email or newsletter generating engine. Imagine custom formatted email templates that look just as professional as billion dollar companies. Imagine the ability to track emails that are sent from the system, determine if they have been received - and opened. Now, that's power!

How Do I Start?

1. You need a plan. Decide why you want a web site and what you want it to do for you. Fair Price Studio is here to help you make your site beautiful, usable, fast, and efficient - but we can't create your business model.

2. Decide if you are serious or not. Fair Price Studio is for professional folks who want professional work and professional care. Whatever you can think of - we can make it happen.

3. Brand. If you already have a brand - you are off to a great start. Briefly, a brand is everything that represents your company visually, verbally, or in print. At the very least, you need a name, a logo, and an idea of what you want. We can help you make your brand a reality.

4. DOMAIN NAME and WEB HOST. You can't have a web site without a domain name or a web host. Fair Price Studio can help you set these up using your credit card and a provider of your choice. We make no money from doing this (unlike many other design companies) but are happy to help. If you choose to set these items up yourself, we recommend that you use the same company for both your web host and domain name registration. When you are ready to start your web site, we will need your account information as we will need to set up your server - basically getting it ready for use.

5. CONTENT. Content is everything you want to see in your web site. This is text (known as copy), images, photographs, illustrations, product pictures - everything. It's best that all of this be ready before we start - but not imperative. Remember, with FPS built web sites, you have the power to edit just about everything yourself.

6. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Don't worry, this is a fancy term that describes the organization of your web site. What tabs do you want to see and what do you want to call them? Do you want a top menu with drop down sub items or do you want a list on the side? How many pages do you want to start off with? Do you want a search field? User accounts? Contact page? The sky is the limit. Not sure what you need? Send us an email and we'll help you figure it out.

Ecommerce

7. PRODUCT DETAILS. If you have chosen our Ecommerce CMS Package, you have decided to open a professional online store. For each product you wish to add, you will need the following items:

• Product Photograph or Image
• Product Name
• SKU or Product Number
• Product Weight
• Product Dimensions
• Product Price
• Short Product Description
• Long Product Description
• Product Options

It is imperative that you have an organization scheme ready for your products. As an example, sh_blu_103 could mean: a shoe, model 103, in blue.

8. SHIPPING. As an online business, you will be shipping! There are several options for shipping and you need to pick one. They range from no shipping, flat rate, percentage of sale, cost by weight, and professional shipping matrices from UPS, FEDEX, DHL, etc.

9. TAX. Do you wish to collect sales tax?

10. TERMS AND CONDITIONS. In today's litigious world, terms and conditions are a must. These detail your return policies, liability limitations, site use parameters, etc. We highly recommend you have these drawn up by a professional. Fair Price Studio will not "borrow" terms of use from another company - we will only use what you supply us.

That about covers it. Don't be fooled, building a web site is a group effort and does require your attention and involvement. It can't be started or finished without you. But, when you are ready, and you have the right idea, the right enthusiasm, and the right products - a web site from Fair Price Studio can be incredibly rewarding.