COMMON WEBSITE QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

COMMON WEBSITE QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Q: Do I need a modem to have a website?

A: No. Various people and services will prepare and maintain your website for you. However, it's highly advisable that you obtain a modem as soon as possible, so you can both verify that your work is actually being done for you, and so you can receive email responses generated by your website.

Q: I put up a website with a company that told me that there are 30,000,000 people on the Internet, and that I'd receive tons of sales. I've yet to receive a single response. What's the problem?

A: There are a number of things you should know and understand before you advertise on the Web. First, there aren't 30,000,000 people on the Internet. That figure is severely inflated - it's more like 12-15,000,000. Most of those people won't be interested in what you have to offer. That's just life.

The ones that might be interested need to know how to find you. Does the service you've signed up with list you in all of the major search databases? Unless someone already has the URL (address) of a specific website they want to visit, they will go to one of these databases and search under the subject they're interested in. If you aren't there, this person will never know about you. If this service doesn't insert you into the databases, it doesn't matter what kind of Internet Mall your website's in, you'll only get a trickle of traffic. You'll need to do it yourself.

Q: I want to put a lot of large images on my website, as well as a video of myself that will play when someone accesses my website. Is this feasible?

A: Yes and no. When creating a website, you should keep in mind that most people will be accessing your site with a 33,600 bps modem. This is relatively slow, and will result in long download times for large images. In general, it's a good practice to keep individual images under 20k in size, smaller if possible. If your site takes too long to download, people will become impatient and will leave before it's finished loading.

As for the video, there are technologies in development which will allow for videos to play as they're downloading. As of now, though, visitors to your site would have to click on a link to download the entire video first, before they could view it. Video files can be extremely large, and could result in extensive download times (and storage expense on your side, depending on your Internet Service Provider's pricing structure). Be sure your video is crucial to your site before you put it up.

Q: How can I tell how many people have visited my website?

A: There are many ways to do this. The simplest method is to add a counter to your website. Check with your Internet Service Provider on how to do this, as the procedure varies from provider to provider. It is usually as simple as adding one line of code to your HTML document.

Be sure, however, that you add a visit counter, rather than a hit counter. A visit counter adds 1 to the total when someone visits your site. A hit counter adds 1 to the total each time something downloads from your site. So, if you have four images on your page and one person visits it, a hit counter will register five hits: one for the page itself, and one for each graphic. This might make you think that five people have visited, when only one has.

If your service provider does not have a visit counter available, you can register with various outside firms that will audit your website. Prices and deliverables for this service vary. Here are two services you can check: Wishing Com (http://204.119.16.17/), Internet Audit Bureau (http://www.internet-audit.com/).

Q: Is it possible to tell where someone heard about my website when they visit (similar to having a key in a print ad, so you can attribute a response to a particular magazine or newspaper)?

A: It may be, depending on your Internet Service Provider. As noted in the above question, most providers have a CGI-Script (a program you can call from your website) that can count visitors for you. Some CGI-Scripts will maintain a log of visitor information, possibly including where they came from. Knowing this information is very valuable, as you can find out what outlets are most useful for promoting your website. If your service provider cannot do this for you, you can always put a form on your website asking people to type in where they heard about your website. (IDEA: Put a list of every place you promote your website in the form as a pull-down menu. That way, people can just click on the proper answer, rather than having to type it in. Convenience will always increase your response!)

Q: I've written a book and would like visitors to my website to be able to pay for and download the book. They should be able to fill out a form with their name, address, and credit card information. Only after they've filled this out will they be able to download the book. Is this possible?

A: It may be, again depending on your service provider. Check with your provider to see if they have CGI-Scripts available for passwords and custom form thank you pages (the page the visitor sees after they fill out and submit a form). Then, what you'll need to do is password protect the page where visitors download your book. Set up a custom thank you page that contains the password and a hyperlink to the downloading page. When your visitor fills out the form and submits it, they'll get the page with the password. When they click on the link, they'll be asked for the password. They type it in, and they're allowed to access the download page. You should change your passwords frequently, preferably daily, to help keep things secure.

This isn't foolproof, though. Someone could submit a blank or only partially filled out form and get the password. By and large, though, Internet users are honest, and any fraudulent downloads should be more than compensated by the extremely high profit margin on the product (no printing expense, virtually no delivery expense).

The other way you can do this is to email the password to the buyer after you receive their filled out form in your email. The advantage to this is that you can verify the information on the form, and eliminate any blank or partial forms. The disadvantage is the buyer does not get their product immediately, which negates one of the advantages of selling information on the web. You need to weigh these factors when deciding how you want to do business.

A final option would be to encrypt the book file with a program such as PKZIP. After your customer downloads the file, they contact you for the password.

Q: How can I get my website recognized by some of the Cool Site of the Day websites?

A: Good question. For those who haven't seen them, there are many websites which are nothing more than groups of links to other websites that are deemed to be beneficial in some way, or just plain "cool". Each website has its own criteria, which are usually about 90% subjective, based on the tastes of the person who maintains the website. Usually, though, you will need to have a website that is either innovative in its presentation (graphically exciting, or making use of new web technologies like Java, Shockwave, VRML, etc.), comprehensive in content, or, most frequently, humorous in nature.

You can see a decent list of these sites by visiting the Yahoo database (http://www.yahoo.com) and clicking on the topic "Computers: WWW". From there, you will be presented with a list of subtopics, including "Cool Sites". Click there, and you will get a list of these websites, which you can then check out for details.

(Some people may be asking, why would you want to be listed on one of these websites, anyway? The simple answer is traffic. Being listed as a "cool site" will increase traffic through your website immensely the day you're listed. Most of these websites maintain a list of sites that were previous cool sites of the day. You'll be on that list, too, and people who search through the list will find your link. It's hard to get picked as a cool site, but if you do, you'll notice it!)