FREQENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What do I need to get a website?

• Create and Register a domain name
• Set up appropriate web site hosting
  • Appropriate is dependent upon how many “hits” (visitors) you expect
  • Will you be using e-commerce
  • A blog
  • Size of the site
  • Other factors
• Find a designer/developer to get the site designed and coded
  • A good designer/developer can create a PROFESSIONAL looking site. Your potential clients will walk away from your site if it looks like it was created by an amateur. Potential ecommerce buyers will not buy if they are uncomfortable with the look of the site.
  • A good designer will help lay out the navigation in a way that is meaningful to your VISITORS.
  • A good designer will resolve browser issues. Browsers are the interface which people use to view your site. There are a large number of browsers out there. The most well known are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari though they are a few among many more. Browsers DO NOT treat code the same way. Your site needs to be tested across browsers and browser versions to insure that they work in those browsers. This does not necessarily mean that they look identical in all browsers. A good designer/developer will check that there are no cross browser issues that will break your site.

What is a domain name?

A layperson's definition is that a domain name is the "address" of your site that people will type into their browsers. An example is “ThisIsMySite.com”. If you haven't already registered a domain name, you will have to see if the one you want is available. Here's one place to check.

Once you find an available domain, you register the domainr for a period of time that you chose. It can range from a year to a number of years. Fees ran depending upon the time period you purchase it for. It is extremely important to be aware that you will have to re-purchase this right at the end of that time period.

It is critical that you re-new your registration of your domain name in a timely manner. If you let your domain ownership lapse, someone else can buy it. It could prove very expensive to get it back.

More about Domain Registration

What is web site hosting?

Your site consists of many files and potentially one or more databases. These have the “live” somewhere on the web. A web host provides that home.

A monthly or quarterly fee will be paid to the web host. The amount of the fee is dependant upon the services you will require from the host and your expected bandwidth usage.

What is a bandwidth?

Source of the following definition is Wikipedia

In website hosting, the term "bandwidth" is often used to describe the amount of data transferred to or from the website or server within a prescribed period of time. Another more specific phrase used for this meaning of bandwidth is monthly data transfer.

Web hosting companies often quote a monthly bandwidth limit for a website, for example 500 gigabytes per month. If the total amount of data downloaded from the website in a particular month reaches this limit, the hosting company may shut off further public access to the site.

When a website grows in popularity or exceeds its bandwidth limits, webmasters may reduce bandwidth usage by employing bandwidth optimization techniques.

How much does a web site cost to create?

Many factors determine the pricing of a site. Custom vs. template. It depends in part on how complex and how large your site needs to be.

• Is it a simple “brochure” site or a database driven or commerce site?
• What do you need the site to do. It's difficult to determine until we've analyed exactly what you want the site to do for you.

If you have a budget issue, a site can be built in stages. You can always start with a barebones brochure site unless you intend to sell items on line which will require online payments and/or e-commerce. You can build additional functionality later on. However, you should keep this future functionality in mind as the site is designed especially as the navigation and content areas are built out. Alert your designer and/or developer up front about this.

What if I want my website to look exactly the same to every visitor?

SHORT ANSWER: It can't. It won't.

Okay it can IF you you have enough cash to replace every visitors' computer setup with the exact same operating system, monitor size, monitor resolution and browser version and insure that they use that setup to view your site.

Ah? Could you explain? Let's tackle one issue in this faq: Simply, pixels are relative.

Example: Impact of Monitor Size

Let's take the situation of two separate visitors: one has a 17” monitor and the other a 15” monitor. Let's keep them both with a 1440x900 resolution. Let's fix the width and height of the web site being viewed at at 820x600px.

17” Monitor	15” Monitor
101 Pixels per Inch	111 Pixels per Inch

The “size” of the website while fixed in pixels appears to be a different size on the two monitors. The font size will be different. The smaller screen packs those 820 pixels into a smaller package. If you measured the screen with a ruler, the website width on the larger screen would be about 8.25” while on the smaller screen it would be 7.5”

Example: Impact of Screen Resolution

Let's take the situation of two separate visitors each using a 17” monitor. But one person has a hard time seeing and has their resolution at 1440x900 while the other has twenty/twenty vision and keeps their resolution at 1600x1200. Let's fix the width and height of the web site being viewed at at 820x600px.

1440x900	1600x1200
101 Pixels per Inch	133 Pixels per Inch

Again the “size” of the website while fixed in pixels appears to be a different size on the two monitors. The font size will be different. The higher resolution packs those 820 pixels into a smaller package.

•••• MANTRA: The Web is NOT Print. The Web is NOT Print. The Web IS flexible. ••••

This is not the end of the issues. You'll have visitors who don't even see your site. These are people who will “view” your site using a screen reader. Or you'll also have visitors who shut off images to speed up loading time. Or, you'll have visitors via their cell phones on their teeny tiny screens. Or, you'll have visitors who will pump up the font size on your site. I'm sure I have missed some. The Web IS flexible.

Different browsers and operating systems are issues that we'll discuss in a separate faq.