1. What is the purpose of your site?
- You should determine
the purpose of your web site prior to planning the layout and design
phases. A web site may be for personal or commercial use. The site may
serve primarily as an information resource or "online" business card.
A web site may also be designed to serve as a commercial outlet by offering
products and services online. If this is the case, you should consider
what level of E-commerce you intend to conduct through your site (more
on this later...).
2. Do you have a domain name registered?
- A domain name is an internet address such a
www.bluecrescenttech.com. Domain
name registration charges vary from about $42-$72 for two years. Registration
can be completed through a variety of providers, including Blue
Crescent Technologies.
If you do not have a domain name registered prior to requesting a consultation,
you should select at least two names that meet your needs.
As a rule of thumb... you should try to find a name that is meaningful
and easily remembered (also easily entered without misspelling). The
shorter the name, the better as long as you are not sacrificing "meaning"
in the process. Finally... if you do have a domain name registered,
please note where it is currently hosted (or parked) in your consultation
request.
3. Do you currently have a web site?
- If you
are requesting a re-design of an existing web site, please provide the
URL so that we may get a better understanding of what type of content
you intend to offer. Please provide the name of the web host for your
existing site as well. We will need to know what account features you
have access to prior to developing your web site (CGI for instance).
If you do not currently have a web site, it is often helpful if you
provide the URLs to one or more web sites that offer "similar" services
and content to what you intend to offer on your own site.
Blue Crescent Technologies also has a great line of customizable website
templates via our
Design
Center.
4. If so, where is your site hosted? - Please consider our
Web Management Services.
We offer substantial discounts to design clients. However, if our services
do not meet your needs, we will help you find one that does!
- Many
sites integrate existing photos in digital format. These are sometimes
used to display products, company employees, or the facilities themselves.
For personal sites, family photo albums can often be developed online.
In requesting a consultation, it is helpful to know how many images
you have planned for your new site. If you intend to use any existing
images from a current web site, it is important to note that in your
consultation request as well.
7. How many pages of content do you have? - This
question can often be difficult to estimate. Think of your prospective
site in "outline" form... that is, if you had to write an outline for
how the site would be structured, what would it look like? You should
start with main menu items and work your way down into sub-menus. By
doing this, you can get an approximation of how many pages the finished
project will require. As an example, consider the following rough outline:
A. HOME PAGE
B. COMPANY PROFILE
- Our Founder
- Company History
C. OUR PRODUCTS
- Widgets
- Gizmos
- Whatzits
- Thingamajigs
D. ORDER FORM
E. CUSTOMER SERVICE
- Request a replacement
- Look up a part number
- Request service
F. CONTACT US
- Phone List
- E-mail Form
- FAX info
D. HELPFUL LINKS
From this example, you can estimate approximately 19
pages for the project. It is very helpful if you are able to provide
an outline similar to this in your consultation request.
8. Do you intend to conduct E-commerce on your site?
- If you will be conducting any kind of business on your site, you
should consider just what level of business you intend to conduct. For
instance, if you intend to offer a catalog of products online, you should
decide if you want to process orders entirely over the Internet or if
you wish to simply "take" orders online and process them in your store.
There are benefits and costs associated with both. In order to completely
process orders online, accepting all forms of payment (credit cards
and checks mainly), you will almost certainly need a merchant account.
There are a wide range of providers that you can obtain an account from.
On an average, you can expect the following expenses in setting up your
merchant account (these are third party vendor fees, they are NOT fees
we charge you): - Account application fees ranging from $135-$800 -
Possible "in store" equipment purchases for processing transactions
$350-$450 - Monthly Statements at approximately $10 - Per transaction
fees between .20 - .30 cents - Bank charges for processing the electronic
charges - Monthly minimum service charges of between $20-$30 - Service
fees of 3-10 % of each transaction
** Please note that these are broad averages in price. For the best
available rates, you should research the providers for your best rate.
Other less costly options include processing payments via Internet checks
or simply taking orders online via a secure Internet connection and
processing them offline in your store, using your existing processing
systems. Finally, if you do intend to offer a range of products online,
please describe the product line in terms of # of items, photo requirements,
and how often the product line will change.
9. Do you require any non-standard features? -
These include "Flash" introductions, custom CGI or Java scripting, database
development, or other "unique" features. If so, please provide as much
detail as possible regarding those needs in your consultation request.
10. Do you intend to maintain the web site yourself?
- Upon completion of your project, we offer 30 days of free site
maintenance for minor changes and revisions. These include changing
links, contact information, and text changes of a paragraph or less.
After the initial 30 days, Blue Crescent Technologies does
offer our Web Maintenance
Services. For those comfortable with
HTML, the final project can be edited by the customer as they see fit.
Please note that errors created by a customer "self editing" their site
are NOT covered in the initial 30 days of free support.
Answering these questions will provide a strong
foundation for determining the structure and
requirements of your web site. Please answer all of
these items to the best of your ability. If you have
any additional questions or information to offer,
please include them in your consultation request.
Once again, thank you for considering our services.
We hope that this checklist has been helpful and we
look forward to hearing from you soon.