Girl Geek Speaks Newsletter
Welcome to the August 2004 Issue of our newsletter for the
technically challenged and web site wannabe's. We feature
articles to help guide you through the process of designing,
building, and promoting your business or personal web site. If
you know someone who may like getting these newsletters, feel
free to forward it to them in its entirety, or have them sign up
for their own copy below.
In This Issue
Feature Article: Web Sites: The Next Generation
Ask Girl Geek: What about using Web Easy 5.0?
Web Sites: The Next Generation
I'll bet you didn't know that websites can be thought of in
developmental or evolutionary stages - referred to as
generations.
For simplicity's sake, let's call them First, Second, and Third
generation. At a glance you can think of it as
- First generation TELLS -
- Second generation MARKETS
- Third generation SELLS
First generation websites TELL. They look like the business
owner just wanted to have a simple web presence because someone
told them they should. They may have even built the site
themselves or had a relative or friend do so. (Big hint: If a
site was built with a FREE site builder template or is hosted by
their ISP, it’s probably a First generation site. You can
usually tell by the domain name that includes the name of the
ISP.) These sites have information, but lack a compelling
marketing message because little thought was put into the
planning of the site. They often have an amateurish
presentation, an attempt to appeal to all, and are not easy to
navigate.
Second generation websites MARKET. These sites usually get
developed when the business owner either sees no results from
the first site or gets calls indicating site visitors can't find
the desired information or are confused as to the nature of
their business. This is the stage where the business owner
wither scraps their First generation site as a "waste of money"
or they get serious about marketing to their niche. This is
where a professional designer with internet marketing savvy can
come in handy. Not only will the site be more focused and have a
clear “call to action”, but it can also be used for marketing
research...getting to know the customer and their needs better.
Third generation websites SELL. The Second generation website
has been successful enough to show the business owner exactly
who their customers are and what they want. The Third generation
site is developed to target those customers and to fulfill their
needs. It is clear immediately from the look and content of the
site whom these sites cater to. Website development and
generations usually parallels the maturity and sophistication of
the business.
Look at your site and ask, “Does my site TELL, MARKET, OR SELL?”
Ask Girl Geek: What about using Web Easy 5.0?
Hi,
I know that you do website design, I was wondering how it would
work if I used a product to type in all my text etc and worked
with you to add the spunk to the design. I purchased web easy 5
and have not opened it yet, have you heard of it? I registered a
domain and am feeling the need to get the site up and going.
Others have said they've used "good daddy" or something like
that, what comments do you have?
Thanks for any input
D
Hi D,
Web Easy is a WYSWYG editor (what you see is what you get). I've
looked at it, but find it is limited in terms of the design
option I use for my websites. If you haven't opened it yet, I
suggest you take it back. I use FrontPage2003 mostly, or
Dreamweaver.
GoDaddy.com is a web hosting and registration site. It has a
built-in website builder. I've had really terrible experiences
with clients who've built sites on sitebuilders. They don't
offer enough features, they are actually more time consuming to
update and they limit the look of your website to their
templates. One client ended up paying me more to update her
site, built on a sitebuilder, than she would have if I built it
from scratch. Plus the costs of hosting the sites there are way
more than what most coaches need to pay. I use a great hosting
company that charges only $36 a year for hosting that is
sufficient for most coaches' websites.
Thanks for asking!
Annette
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