 If I have a web site, then I will get millions in sales. |
This is the biggest fallacy on the net! No company that deals with the net promises this, because they can't.
The customer controls where he(she) will go and no one else. The customer decides where the money is spent. Every company that is blessed with millions in sales, spends millions to earn those sales. A very small percentage of these millions are actually spent on the web site. Most is spent on advertising, either traditional or through linking with other sites. |
Is there anything better than search engines? |
Regretfully, not at the present time.
Our sister Companies, BlackHills.com and The Black Hills Directory are working on this problem.
BlackHills.com poseses the most well know URLS in the region (blackhills.com, sturgis-rally.com, sturgis.com) and provides links to there paying customers. The rates are well worth the investment in the number of sales leads gathered.
The Black Hills Directory provides all the pertinent info (Name, Link, Email, phone, fax, toll free number and address) free of charge to all Businesses in the Black Hills Region. Once every web site in the hills has a link, then this site will be able to give search engines a run for their money.
If your business is not listed in the Black Hills Directory, then please add it. IT IS FREE! |
Which businesses definetly need a web site? |
Most people search the internet for what they can not find easily enough in there own area. You are loosing money every day if your business deals with out of state customers and you do not have a web site.
If you are in the tourist business; Motels, hotels, campgrounds, bed and breakfasts, then people are already looking for your site. |
Can I make my own web site? |
Most definetly yes! Web sites consist of two main parts. The script and the graphics.
If you are using a computer with Microsoft® Windows® 95 or newer then you already have the best tool for coding the script. The program is called Wordpad.
This is my tool of choice for coding HTML, Java script and Perl Script. It is the most versatile of all web design tools, the choice of all the leading professional developers. This page was built using this program.
One word of warning. This program is just a simple text editing program. You will have to learn any of the scripting languages you use to create your web pages. Reserve many months to learn the different scripting languages.
The graphics are what make or break a web site. Microsoft® does not provide any software with Windows® worth using for web pages. You will have to have to purchase some type of decent graphics program. |
I tried to make my own web site, but I am having alot of trouble, can you help? |
Yes! We offer both web site design consulting and training.
We offer several consulting service contracts. Just ask us, quotes are free.
We also offer tutoring on many facets of computer operation, programming, web page design, graphic design and data bases. Just ask us and we will provide a free quote. |
Remember the old saying, "Give me a fish and feed me for a day, teach me to fish and feed me forever". |
How much does a web page cost? |
This is the most common question we receive. It is also the hardest to answer, because it is so vague. The honest answer is from $35 on up depending on what you need us to do.
We have prepared several small package deals based on very simple web site designs.
The more work you do yourself, the more you save, the higher your profits. |
How can the graphics take so much of the development time? |
Typically, clients have an idea of what they want for graphics, but do not have the the graphic on hand. Any graphics, that are on hand are not optimized for the internet. We are then forced to create/recreate the graphic from scratch or at minimum resize the graphic.
For example, let us examine creation of The Company Logo.
If a company does not have a logo, we develop the logo. We present a draft, rework, present and represent drafts. When the logo is finally accepted we realize we have designed 50 different variations on a theme. Net... 1 graphic for 20 hours labor, a very expensive graphic.
On the other hand, the company has a logo. Yet the only copy logo is on a piece of letterhead or businesscard. The graphic has to be recreated if it is to represent the company. Net... 1 graphic for 1 hour labor.
If you can deliver the graphics to us, it can decrease the cost of the web site by more than half. We need the graphics delivered properly sized and optimized for fast loading in a .gif, .jpg or .fla format. At the minimum, we need "camera ready" graphics to help you minimize the expense. |
"Pictures say a thousand words...
bad pictures say it with 4 letter words." |
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| Every business needs a web site if it is to survive... |
This is a slight exaggeration. Not every single business needs a complex web site. Every business does need electronic communication.
Can you imagine your business with out a phone? Email is the easiest form of written communication. The majority of people who use the internet, send and receive email. I would say the minimum a business needs is 1 web page, if only to list the different ways to contact you. |
| If my site is listed in a search engine then I will be found by millions of potential customers. |
Search engines are businesses that make a living out of showing web pages. They show you ads to pay for your search. The more pages they make you look at, the higher their profit margin. So... the odds are against you ever being number one for an extended period of time.
Do this at home...The most well know feature in western South Dakota is Mount Rushmore. Take the top ten search engines and do a search for mount rushmore and see what you come up with. If the search engines do what they claim they do, the following url should be number 1 consistently... The official Mount Rushmore site is "http://www.nps.gov/moru". Do the search once a week for 4 weeks... See where the official Mount Rushmore web site falls.
This is a one of a kind landmark that is fairly well known, with no other competition. Do you really think your business will be at number 1 consistently? Remember, every other simular business would like that top position. |
My business does not deal with tourists, should I even have a web site? |
Yes! I would suggest starting off small, to support your existing customer base.
What do your existing customers typically phone and ask for? This type of information should be on your web page to begin with. Unlike print ads, Your web site can always be expanded when there is enough customer usage to warrant expansion.
Be prepared to market your site. Most local people do not look on the internet for local businesses. Mainly because of the way search engines keep shuffling the positions of web sites. |
| I do not want to learn any scripting languages. Can I use another program to make my web site? |
Why do businesses have professional printers and sign painters create their print work? Simply put, stencils and paint by numbers do not look very professional.
The more expensive programs can do simple pages quickly, but you still need to learn the scripting languages to do anything very fancy or complex. Reserve many weeks to learn how to use the program. If you need a fancy site, then be prepared to learn the scripting languages anyway.
In the hands of professionals, stencils and paint by nunmbers can look very good, although after seeing 100 or so ads done with those they tend to all blur together. Your site should be as distinctive as your business. |
| I had a site made, but it is so slow loading. Can you fix it? |
It depends on the original design. We might be able to rework the graphics to speed up the loading, or a slight rework of the page itself.
If the site was designed without the speed of loading considered, it might be cheaper just to start over. I have seen some very poorly designed pages when it comes to speed of loading. We go to great lengths to design our pages so they load as fast as possible.
Email us your URL and we will give you quotes to clean up the code and graphics or to redesign the web page if that would be cheaper. |
How can I mimimize the expense for my web site? |
There are several ways you can save time and money. We have found that there are 3 main areas that can save you large amounts of cash when building your web site. By far, the greatest amount of time is spent on the graphics, followed by the layout and finally the text.
Over half the time used to build the web site is spent on the graphics. About a quarter of the time is spent on the layout. The remainder is spent on the text and the script. |
| How can the web site layout effect the final expense? |
The page layout can make or break a web site. Many web sites add pages here, and add pages there without any thought to the customer navigating the site. Navigation through the web site becomes awkward turning away customers.
When you first design your website, you need to plan for the all the pages you might want to add. Create an outline grouping simular pages together. This is the source for your web site navigation. The navigation can have all the pages you might want to build, the actual controls are just hidden until the pages are built.
If you can storyboard the site then it will save you much. It does not need to be very elaborate, just a quick pencil sketch showing what features you want and where you would like them placed. The main expense here is editing the entire site because another page is needed or we create a layout based on 3 lines of type yet the client needs 300 lines.
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How can the text effect the final expense? |
Depending on the amount of text you need on a page, this can save you a little or alot. Typing takes time, and we are not the fastest typists in town.
We base our bids on $35 an hour. Not many typists charge that amount, so if you have alot of text to be placed on a page have it typed up yourself. Delivering all the text as a .txt, .doc or .wpd file makes it quick and easy to insert the text in a web page. |
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