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Frequently Asked Questions
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1. Why can't I just create my own web page? 2. Can TnnWeb/CreativeThinking Design host my web page? 3. What are "custom" and "stock" graphics? 4. Can I have my company logo and pictures of my products on my page? 5. Can I include things like guestbooks, forms, and chat rooms on my page? 6. What is an online store? 7. Will TnnWeb/CreativeThinking Design receive and answer the email from my web site? 8. What is "registering" with a search engine and why is that important? 9. What if I want my own domain name? 10. Is there another option besides having my own domain name? 11. What if I am unhappy with my website or I decide to discontinue it? 12. What is meant by web site "maintenance"? 13. How will my site be advertised? 14. How will I know if people are visiting my web page? 15. What are the "hidden" costs of having a web page? 16. What kinds of issues are important when deciding how to design my page? |
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1. Why can't I just create my own web page? Yes. CreativeThinking Web Design does offer web hosting services with our Tnnweb.com Web Sites. You will have the option of having your site hosted by CreativeThinking Web Design, or a fee-based server. Fee-based servers allow you to have your own domain name and typically permit larger sites {200-30 pages}. But it costs to have a fee-based site, the hosting along with fees to obtain your own domain name {as in Tnnweb.com}. TnnWeb WebSites provides hosting at a greatly reduced cost and the domain name is incorporated into TnnWeb.com. 3. What are "custom" and "stock" graphics? Stock graphics are graphics that were not originally designed by CreativeThinking Web Design . These are graphics, usually clip-art, that CreativeThinking Web Design has acquired from other artists, or are found free of charge at other internet sites. Company logos usually require special artistic resources abd require additional costs. We always suggest you use as many free graphics as possible to save on costs. But if you need that sepcial graphic or logo then CreativeThinking can provide those at additional costs. 4. Can I have my company logo and pictures of my products on my page? Yes. Items such as company logos, photographs, or any other type of pictures can be included on your site at no additional charge as long as you provide said materials ready for scanning. These items will be put into a computer file by scanning them with a computer scanner. Please note, however, that large amounts of scanning (such as what would be required for an online catalog) will incur additional charges. CreativeThinking Web Design offers packages with uniform pricing that includes a limited number of scanning of pictures and logos. {see our special offers here} 5. Can I include things like guestbooks, forms, and chat rooms on my page? Yes. Any type of technology that you might want to include such as chat rooms, guestbooks, customized forms, online commerce, JavaScript, Java, and CGI can be included on your site. These more complex programming techniques and are, of course, more costly than the simpler technologies and should be used with discretion. CreativeThinking Web Design can offer suggestions regarding what types of technologies you might want to include on your web page. There are many on-line resources that can be used free of charge that work well on any web site. When ever we can provide free on-line resources we will do so to save you money. 6. What is an online store? Depending on the type of business you own, you may want to offer your products or services over the internet. The process of selling products or services over the internet requires special programming in addition to the establishment of online commerce accounts (similar to the merchant accounts businesses must establish in order to process credit card sales). CreativeThinking Web Design can help you establish these accounts and provide the necessary programming for an online store if you decide that would be appropriate for your website. If desired, secure server technology can be utilized with real-time credit card processing. 7. Will CreativeThinking Web Design receive and answer the email from my web site? No. You will maintain your own email account (one will be set up for you, if necessary) and you will be responsible for receiving and responding to any email generated by your web site. The only exception to this would be email pertaining to web site maintenance (e.g., incorrect or outdated information on the web page or broken links), provided you have contracted with CreativeThinking Web Design for site maintenance {other tah introductory offer maintenance}. 8. What is "registering" with a search engine and why is that important? Search engines such as Yahoo/Google, Excite, and HotBot include web sites in their databases only after those web sites have been registered with the search engine. There is usually no charge for registration with these search engines, but you must often register separately with each individual service. In addition, there are certain techniques that can be utilized to improve your site's "standing" on a search engine. Many of these techniques are dependent upon how your site is designed (the technology utilized) and how the programming is written. Complicating matters is the fact that different search engines use different criteria to "rank" a site. In effect, this means that when people search for a topic and are presented with a list of results, your site will be listed before other (competitor's) sites if it has been presented to the search engines in an optimal fashion. This helps to greatly increase traffic to your web site, since people ordinarily visit one of the first few sites listed the results list. Although all of this may sound quite complicated, CreativeThinking Web Design can help you to sort through all of these details. 9. What if I want my own domain name? A domain name is your own address on the internet. The address www.microsoft.com is a domain name that is registered to the Microsoft Corporation. Domain names are like trademarks; you must pay a fee and register them. In addition, you must be certain that the domain name you wish to use has not already been taken. CreativeThinking Web Design can take care of this process for you by performing a domain name search and then help you register your domain name with InterNic, the organization currently charged with registering and issuing domain names. Unlike many other web design firms, CreativeThinking Web Design does NOT charge a fee for this service. You are simply responsible for the fee that InterNic charges for the registration process. 10. Is there another option besides having my own domain name? If you would rather not have your own domain name at this time (maybe you want to wait to see if your site will generate business before investing in a domain name), you can maintain a web presence with the TnnWeb WebSites. CreativeThinking Web Design is a part of the TnnWeb WebSites and can host your page or site at reasonable rates {see Pricing}. An example of how your name would look is as follows: www.tnnweb.com/yourname.html. We currently have special introductary prices starting at $50 to design your page and host it along with maintenance. For only $50 your page is on-line for the world to see. 11. What if I am unhappy with my website or I decide to discontinue it? During the first 30 days your site is online, CreativeThinking Web Design will make any necessary changes or revisions to your site at no additional charge {within limits}. The changes are limited at our discretion {we can not completely re-design a page or site, that is not practicle}. {For our introductary offer you will be allowed to make changes only once}. After the first 30 days, you will be responsible for making any such changes to your site unless you have contracted to have your site maintained {contracts with maintenance other than introductory specials} by CreativeThinking Web Design (in which case such changes are included as part of your monthly services). Any errors on our part made in designing your pages will be corrected by CreativeThinking staff. 12. What is meant by web site "maintenance"? Web sites must be maintained just like a company billboard would need to be maintained. Oftentimes, you will want to make minor changes, additions, or updates to your site (e.g., perhaps you have added a new product or service or your rates have changed). If you link to other sites for resources you must insure these sites are functional or you will have broken links that can at be best embarrassing if not costly. In addition, new databases and search engines appear every day. It is important that you stay abreast of these changes so that your site can continually receive maximum exposure. Probably the most important aspect of this promotion is locating and utilizing directories, search engines, and trade organizations that cater specifically to your business field. CreativeThinking Web Design can provide these services at additional costs. Normal maintenance includes insuring your page is working properly with images and links in proper condition. Updates, adding additional information or recurring changes are NOT part of a normal maintenance program. 13. How will my site be advertised? There are several ways to promote websites. The first, and most important, is registering your website with all available search engines. In addition, there are other search engines, directories, and websites specifically related to your type of business. Registering with these sites is often free and crucial in the proper promotion of your website. Finally, popular advertising programs such as LinkExchange help to generate traffic to your site by placing banner ads for your site on other related websites in exchange for placement of their ads. Again, many banner exchange programs have developed within specific industries so that you may "target" your advertising. CreativeThinking can provide these services at additional costs or include them in 'Complete Package' programs that will save on such costs. 14. How will I know if people are visiting my web page? Most people like to track the performance of their website through the use of counters. These small programs are placed on your page and keep track of how many visitors your site has received, where the visitors come from, which parts of your web site are most often visited, and other useful information about your web traffic. The type of program placed on your page would be determined by the type of information you are interested in having about your website traffic. Monitoring this information can be crucial to planning your site promotion techniques (again, "targeted marketing"). The information provided by these counters can be sent directly to you or, if you opt to have CreativeThinking Web Design maintain your site, the information can be compiled, interpreted, and passed along to you by CreativeThinking Web Design. Simple counters keep a running total of visitors to your site and are free with most web design packages {including special offers}. 15. What are the "hidden" costs of having a web page? There really aren't any. If you choose to have your own domain name, there will be an initial fee (owed to InterNic) for registration for the first two years. After that, you must "renew" your claim to this domain name by paying an annual fee to InterNic. Additionally, if you choose to have a domain name and, thus, have your site hosted on a fee-based server, there will be a monthly charge (approximately $20 to $40) for hosting the site. Finally, some programming options may require further expenditures such as merchant accounts for online credit card processing. Other than that, there are no "hidden" costs. Our special introductory offer packages include everything you need to get on-line and there are no other charges {using the TnnWeb.com/yoursite domain name}. 16. What kinds of issues are important when deciding how to design my page? There are four basic concepts that are crucial to effective web site design. The first is content. If your site does not provide useful information in an organized manner comprehensible by the viewer, it won't matter how "pretty" your page is - people just will not visit you! Second, your page must be aesthetically pleasing. Your design must make good use of graphics, color, etc. so that the page is pleasing to the eye and gets the attention of the viewer. Third, web pages must "load" quickly. Through effective use of design and graphics, pages can be constructed to appear on the visitor's computer quickly. Otherwise, visitors are likely to become impatient and move on to another page rather than wait. Remember, there are plenty of websites out there and if yours keeps the viewer waiting, chances are that he or she will check out your competition. With today's technology DSL and cable hookups let pages load much faster thus giving you more freedom to add graphics and photos. Finally, designers must carefully plan technology use around the intended audience. Although "high tech" material like Java, DHTML, SSI, and FLASH may be aesthetically appealing, these technologies may exclude some potential visitors. Many internet surfers are not using the very latest browsers (i.e., the ones that incorporate these technologies). Careful analysis of your potential audience will help you predict what types of technologies your visitors are likely to utilize. |
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