- What
is a web page/web site?
- Do
I really need a web page/web site?
- What
can A# Sharp Design offer me that
I
can not find elsewhere?
- What
is a URL and domain name?
- When I register a domain name,
who will have
ownership of it?
- Can I transfer an existing
domain to your server?
- How long does it take to set up
a new web
hosting account?
- How is billing handled regarding web
hosting?
- How
long will it take before I get my site up?
- What
is E-commerce?
- What
is your Referral Program all about?
- How
do people find my web site once it is up?
- What
is your 100% Guarantee all about?
- What is Maintenance and why do
I need it?
- Can you fix/upgrade my current web
site?
- What
is this going to cost me?
|
Please email your comments to webmaster@asharpdesign.com
as to whether the questions provided above answered your
questions. What other questions do you have in regards to
better understanding the web design process?
|
What is a web page?
| A web page is a graphical representation of your
thoughts posted on the internet for others to see. It is
programmed in a special language called HTML, which takes the
words and graphics you have and interprets them for use on the
internet. Each day millions of people log onto the internet
in search of information that suits their needs.
Generally, these people go to a search engine (Yahoo,
Excite, HotBot, Lycos, etc.) and type words or phrases in
search boxes to find what they are looking for. The
result is a list of "web pages" that pertain to the
information they are looking for. These pages are much like
pieces of literature or sales pieces. They contain all
sorts of information from products, services and reference
material to games, weather and stock quotes. Anyone can have
a web page. The internet is not only for business but a
place to introduce you, the individual to the world. A
website on the other hand is a group of web pages linked together. |
|
Of course not. All one really
"needs" is food, water, a place to live, someone to love
and of course money helps. In order to make this money
though, you need to work. The places that you work at need
to make money in order to stay in business. How do they make
money? In most cases you market your product or service. The
internet is an excellent tool for just that, marketing your
product or service. Billions of dollars are made each day
through the internet. People are constantly searching
for what they need and/or want, don't let it be your
competition that they find!
"Since
the Internet is fast becoming a medium of equal stature to the TV and
radio, a company not present on the Web can no longer be considered as
just plain old-fashioned. It will become easy prey to its competition
and, more significantly, to the negative perception of the marketplace
that the product
|
| On a personal side, the internet is a place where
you can share with the world who you are. Maybe your family
is scattered all over the world and you want to share your child's
moments of glory and sometimes defeat with grandma in Germany.
Do you have a hobby? Share it with the world. There
are most likely millions of people who share your love for this
hobby. |
What can A# Sharp Design
offer me
that I can not find elsewhere?
A# Sharp Design prides itself in customer
satisfaction. We offer a 100% Guarantee that you will love
your web site or we will give you your money back. Each site
is designed to be goal oriented, professionally designed, visually
pleasing and easy to navigate. A web page
should be designed with a specific formula for success, the site
must be:
|
 | Attention Grabbing (keeping the viewer
interested so they will read on and not get bored and leave) |
| Interactive and Interesting (giving the
viewer something to do) |
| Quick Loading (if it takes too long to load
the viewer may just leave) |
| Visually Appealing yet Simple (nice to look
at with naturally flowing text) |
| Easy to Navigate (offering easy access
between pages without dead ends or loops to the unknown - at
every point within a page there should be a point of
navigation to another area nearby) |
| Goal Oriented (the site must express a
certain goal and stick to that goal, a site should not wander
off to totally impertinent information. For example, if
your site is about auto parts you should not have a cool
graphic of a football player - it just does not fit) |
| Informative (the user is not left with any
questions about what you have to offer. Each company has
a target audience(s) and that is who you should be designing
to. For example, do not write in technical lingo or
jargon if your target audience is the average consumer who may
not understand it.) |
| Affordable (we believe that one should not
have to take out a loan to have a place to call their own on
the internet - our prices are extremely competitive and our
packages are jam packed with all the features and benefits
that you would imagine in a website) |
|
| This is dependent upon the size of you website.
Generally, an average three page web site can be up and running
within one week. Larger more intensive sites may
take up to a month. |
|
E-commerce is the internet version of a store.
It is a way for a business to conduct sales over the internet.
A virtual shop is setup and a user can browse through all of your
products and choose what he/she wants and add it to a virtual
shopping cart. When shopping is completed they go to a
virtual check out counter where they have various options of
payment (credit card, check, virtual check, wire transfer, etc.).
|
| Each day billions of dollars are made through the
internet with E-commerce. It is the wave of the future.
Economists predict that most of our everyday life in the future
will be conducting our business in this fashion. At this
time, one is able to purchase just about anything through
E-commerce. From groceries, clothing and software to music,
stocks, electronics and appliances.
Clearly, e-commerce is here to stay. Int'l
Data Corporation has projected that 46 million Americans will
buy $16 billion worth of goods annually by next year, and $54
billion by 2002.
Looking further ahead, Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter estimates sales of anywhere between $21
billion to $115 billion annually by 2005. |
|
What is
your Referral Program all about?
A# Sharp Design offers a generous
referral program. It is actually quite simple, as follows:
|
| Refer a friend |
| Friend signs up with us for a website |
| You get a free web page to add to your existing or new site |
| The more friends you sign on the more free web pages
|
|
| This program could afford one practically a whole
site for free. The trick to this though is that you must
already either have a website with us or are in the process of
having one designed. |
|
What is a URL
and Domain Name?
| When you register a domain name with A# Sharp Design
you will have full ownership of your domain name. This means
that you can move your domain name somewhere else or modify it
however you want. You have full control over it. |
|
Yes, just be sure to specify that you are requesting
a transfer and NOT a new domain on your order. You should
keep the service with your current provider while waiting for A#
Sharp to complete the transfer process.
|
New accounts are setup in less than 24 hours
(usually less than 8 hours) from the time we receive your
order. Once an account is setup an activation notice will be
sent to you via email.
|
You have your choice of quarterly or yearly
billing. When you pay yearly you will receive a
discount. You also have your choice of automatic credit card
billing or having an invoice sent to you every quarter/year.
Terms of invoicing are "Upon Receipt".
|
So you now have this wonderful website and it's on
the internet for all to see but you do not know how to tell the
world where it is. Well, that is where search engines come
in. There are basically three ways to add your new URL (website) to the search engine:
|
| Manually add your URL address to each
search engine (this can be a little time consuming).
This is accomplished by going to your favorite search engines
and finding the area on their page that says "Add
URL" or "Suggest Site". This is usually
located somewhere on the bottom of the page. With some
search engines you have to go to the particular directory
or group where you want your web site to be listed.
Let's say your web site is about sports. Using Yahoo as
an example, you would: |
|
|
- Go to the "Recreation and Sports" directory on
their home page.
- Choose "Sports" from the choices presented
- You may either list your site here generally or choose
another more detailed description, For our purposes we
will choose "Martial Arts"
- You can still get into more detail by the type of
"Martial Arts" but to save time we are going to
post our website here
- Go to the bottom of the web page, you will see
"Suggest Site" - click on it
- Follow the instructions to submit your website.
|
|
| Submit your website to hundreds of search engines by using
a program or service that
does it for you. This can be a little complicated for
the average user and is sometimes more beneficial for personal
use just to submit your website manually to specific search
engines. Generally, a business would benefit from this
option more. Although this is the easy way, it is not
always the best. To insure proper registration it
is good practice to manually register your site.
This provides greater detail in descriptions and keywords;
thus, a better ranking. Some search engines do not
even except mass registrations. |
|
|
| A# Sharp Design will submit
your website for you. This comes included free in
our Standard Package and for a fee within our Maintenance
Packages. So what's the difference? Simply, with
the included Standard
Package, your page is submitted manually to the top ten
search engines. With the fee based Maintenance
Programs your site is submitted manually to the top 50 search engines, with coding to optimize position and
monitoring to keep them that way. The remaining, less
crucial, search engines are
submitted through a program. As a note, the Maintenance
Packages also includes hosting, statistical reports on web
traffic, and updates to non-static web pages. You
will find more information on what is included in our
Maintenance Programs |
|
What is maintenance and why do
I need it?
Maintenance with A# Sharp Designs pertains to:
| Monitoring and updating of search engine standings.
It has been proven that a person in search of information on a
search engine generally will not browse more than three or
four pages. It is extremely important that your site be
listed somewhere within that range. It is preferable
that you be listed on the first page to receive the most hits.
Keeping your site in that position requires monitoring of its
status. Keywords and meta tags are essential to this
standing. It is sometimes a good idea to visit your
competitors websites and check out what they are using for
keywords this will keep you competitively ranked with them. |
|
|
| Monthly Statistic Reports. These
reports detail all activity going through your web site.
With this I mean, geographical reports that show where people
are logging on to your site from, what search engines people
are entering your site from and the keywords they are using to
get there, which days and times people visit your site, the
pages that are most visited and the time they spend on those
pages, which pages people most often enter and exit your website, etc. All these factors result in excellent
marketing data. They also provide great information
concerning what pages are more or less popular; thus providing
a tool to change those pages and try something different to
make the visitor stay. |
|
|
| Upgrades of non-static pages. A website that remains unchanged or static becomes boring for the
visitor. It is good practice to have particular sections
of your web site that change often. Some examples of
these sections are: (1) What's New page, (2) Newsletter
page, and (3) Links page. Updating and changing these
pages on a regular basis gives the viewer a reason to come
back to your site and also aides in better positioning on the
search engines since they like to keep their listings fresh
and up-to-date and CAN tell when you update your pages. |
|
|
| Web Space Fee. We list this just
because we include it in our maintenance packages. Web
space can start at 25 megs and go all the way up to 100's of
megs. For the most part, the average user only needs
about 10 to 15 megs. Users with large websites
that house many graphics, databases and conduct e-commerce
sales may require more space. See our web
hosting page for more details. |
|
What is your 100% Guarantee all
about?
Yes, you saw it right! A# Sharp Design offers our customers a 100% unconditional money back
guarantee on all our design work. This means that if for any
reason you are unsatisfied with the image we present that we will
give you your money back. The only thing we ask is for you
to provide a written statement as to why you are dissatisfied to
be submitted via email. That's all there is to it.
|
| We are committed to unparalleled customer service
and satisfaction. We want you to stay with our design family
and refer your friends and family to us now and in the future. |
What is this going to cost me?
| A# Sharp Design offers extremely
affordable design prices. We believe that you should not
have to take out a loan to secure a internet presence. With
our Referral Program you can earn free web pages for your site,
which increases your savings even more. Coming soon, you
will be able to visit our Competitive Matrix page, which will
detail our features, benefits and prices compared to those
of other design companies. |
|
Can you fix/upgrade my current web
site?
| Certainly! Since the ground work is already
laid out for us this is a fairly simple task. In most cases
the textual content is not the problem. A# Sharp Design will create a visually pleasing upgrade that will create a
professional image for your company. |
|
|
