Maki & Brian DeLaet EduCyber founders

Building Web Sites that Work

Imagine building a house without a blueprint. Or a bridge without an architect and a good engineer. Every project needs a plan.

And so it is with web sites. If you don't have a plan, if you haven't architected or designed your site before you build it, you might find it falling over the first time it gets tested. Or worse yet, you put your site up “because everyone's doing it” but you haven't given a thought to what it should do or what you want to happen. Then you get frustrated because you're not getting any business from your site.

To make sure that you build a web site that works for your business, plan for it:

1. What is the purpose of your web site?
   Do you want to do ecommerce? Do you want to get more people to call you? Do you want them to email you? Do you want to lower costs? Increase revenue? Streamline processes?
   All of these are valid purposes for a web site
2. Once you understand the purpose, determine the layers.
   How big does the site need to be to accomplish your purpose? A small business planning to add new customers might have two layers, a home page that links to the second layer of pages such as Sign up now!, Get a map to our store here and learn more about us here.
   A larger site might be required if the goal is to streamline an in-house process: Home page links to visitor's pages and to a login page for in-house use. The in-house login page links to the next level where data can be input or received. As many layers as needed can be created.
3. Now the architect can start talking to the engineer to determine what kind of materials are needed to build the kind of structure you've described. Do you need a database? Should you use Flash to demonstrate something? How should the navigation work? There are a whole host of questions to answer in this phase.
4. Once those questions are answered you are ready to design the look and feel of the site.
   What color schemes will be effective? Do you have a logo? What are the consistent elements you'll have on each page? What elements should be different on each page? Put all of these elements together and you're ready for the next step.
5. Now you're finally ready to design each page.
   The question you should ask yourself on EACH and EVERY page is: What do I want someone to do when they get to this page? Should they call? Should they make a purchase? Do they need to fill in a form? Without a call to action or a solution to a problem, perhaps that page shouldn't exist on your site.

By following these steps you can be on your way to creating a powerful web site that works for you.

Use Your Super Computer Powers
While you may not be a super hero and may not even own a super computer, the one on which you're reading this newsletter probably has some pretty super things you can do. We've all hear of Google and Yahoo and the other big search engines but did you know that you can search your desktop in the same way you can search the Internet? Did you know that any decent word processing program lets you make labels and do mail merges? Did you know that you can have several programs open at once and “bounce” between them with the click of a mouse?
Google, Yahoo, MSN, Copernic and Ask, just to name a few, have an application that you can install on your computer that indexes the contents( not only the file names but the contents of your files) AND emails. This can eliminate the problem of misfiling. Accidentally put the invoice to AA Plumbing in ZZZ Slumberrest? No problem, just type in June invoice AA Plumbing and your desktop search will find your file for you. We haven't tried all of these applications but the basics of what each does is the same. Microsoft will get into the act in a big way with their next operating system – Vista – which will have a very fast search function like these others but this one will be built into the operating system.
Since Microsoft Word dominates the market for word processing software, we'll give you a brief overview of labels and mail merges in Word. If you need to make labels or a mail merge from your list of customers, simply click on the Tools menu and highlight the Letters and Mailings line then click on Mail Merge. The wizard will walk you through the six steps required to make your labels or merge. Don't see the wizard? Look on the right side of your screen (that's the default location on Word 2003). The steps are pretty basic and easy to follow.
With apologies to Mac users (you probably already know how to do this anyway), opening several windows at once can save you the time of repeatedly opening and closing windows. Rare is the day when I don't have more than 10 windows open at once. If you see the task bar (typically along the bottom of your screen) you can click on each window that is open to bring it to the top of the pile. I'll have three or more instances of Internet Explorer open so I can view different pages, of course my email is open and then Windows Explorer so I can find the files I need and probably two or three instances of Word with all the files I'm working on or looking at. Don't see the task bar? No problem. Just hit Alt + Tab and then keep hitting Tab until you see the file / program that you want and release the ALT key.
Taking a few minutes each week to learn about and practice new computer skills and techniques can make a huge impact on your productivity over time. Set aside 5 minutes a day or even once a week during the slowest part of your day to practice or learn.
Call us at 720 -275-4646 if you'd like more tips or information on how to keep learning.

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© 2006 EduCyber, Inc. This newsletter is brought to you by EduCyber, Inc. EduNotes can be viewed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week online at http://www.educyber.com/edunotes/. Visit us on the web at http://www.educyber.com or call us at (720) 275-4646. Permission is hereby granted to redistribute all or part of this newsletter as long as this entire copyright message is included.
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