Internet 101...


Marketing Your Business
Enabling your enterprise to be on the internet is a reality of modern business. Done correctly, your own business website will generate more customers, reinforce customer loyalty, and create public goodwill.

There are three key components in order to place your business on the internet:
1. Choosing and registering a domain name.
2. Creating a business website.
3. Having your website (and e-mail) hosted.





Your Domain Name
Choosing a domain name for your site is one of the most important steps towards creating the perfect internet presence. Many factors must be considered when choosing a good domain name.
In general, it is far better to choose a domain name that is short in length. The shorter your domain name, the easier it will be for people to remember.
Also keep in mind that many internet users are poor at spelling. Try to use easy-to-spell domain names. Try to have a name that doesn't have confusing phonetic variations. Generally, domains with digits and dashes should not be used to avoid confusion. One can overcome this potential confusion by registering possible variations and having them "point" to your main website.
There are a number of "extensions (.com, .net, .org, etc.)" available for domain names. It is strongly recommended that a .com extension is used as the primary domain name. If you have an identity that you wish to protect against exploitation by others, you may wish to register other extensions and have them "point" to your .com website.

Registering Your Domain Name - Domain names are registered via registrars, and are maintained by a central registry. Once registered, the domain name belongs to you for the paid-for period, anywhere from 1 to 10 years. (It is very similar to registering a vehicle license plate in Alberta - done at any private registrar - the central registry being the Government of Alberta.) A domain name owner can transfer his name from one registrar to another.
When registering a domain name, certain important information is included: the owner's name, address, telephone & e-mail address. Additionally, there are CONTACT persons assigned - administrator, technical, and billing.
IMPORTANT - The administrative contact is the most important contact, who can authorize ALL changes pertinent to the domain name, including ownership, e-mail addresses, hosting company, and domain name renewal. It is absolutely critical that the administrative contact be a trusted individual of your business, and that the given e-mail address remains valid at all times. DO NOT allow the hosting company or website design company to be assigned as the administrative contact. (You MAY wish to assign a third party as the technical contact, who can also receive registrar information about the domain name from the registrar.)
Some hosting companies fool businesses into assigning the hosting company as the administrative contact. As a result, the domain name and website of the business is effectively held hostage to the hosting company, and it can even be questionable as to who actually owns the domain name (that's not a friendly future).
Other hosting companies have ceased operations, which eliminates the possibility of allowing changes to the domain name contact information if the hosting company was the administrative contact.

Choosing A Registrar - Not many years ago, the domain name registration system was controlled by a handful of registrars, who simply gouged people desiring to obtain a domain name. Domain names can now be registered through a number of registrars. Because of this competition, domain names can now be obtained at reasonable prices. In addition to price, there are three important criteria that should be available from a registrar. They are:
1. being able to easily update contact information;
2. being able to instantly change DNS name-servers;
3. free domain "pointing" or "forwarding."
A registrar providing all of these services, as well as wholesale domain name pricing is BoxcarDomains.com.
DO NOT FORGET TO RENEW YOUR DOMAIN NAME - Some registrars charge hundreds of dollars for a business to redeem a name that was not renewed on time. If the domain name is not redeemed, it will be made available for anyone to register it.



Creating Your Website
What should be on a business website? Each business will have its own unique answer to that question. However, every site must contain the basics, such as company name, telephone number, etc. Businesses with a store-front can add a map with the store's location - a benefit to many customers. If you are selling items directly via the internet, then an e-commerce solution is an obvious need.
Incorporating your company logo, and possibly company colours, into the website design is important.
Starting with 3 or 4 pages and having up to about 10 pages should encompass the needs of most businesses. A "home" page, an "about us" page, and information that will be useful to prospective clients should be included.
Have a third party evaluate the ease of navigation of your website. Ensure that all of your links are fully functional. Have your design tested in different browsers.
Create your content with your business objective in mind. If you have a store-front business, then you want the customers to come into your store. Hence, your website could be considered an electronic circular (flyer).
Consider whether or not you really need an e-mail address on your site. It may be nice if you can assist a person on the other side of the globe to learn how to properly fit a gizmo inside a widget. But, is that part of your business plan? Does your company have the resources available, or is it desirable, to be a free, global help-desk?

OurInternet.ca offers a do-it-yourself website design product called SiteStudio. This is included in many of our hosting packages. It is fairly easy to use, and may be a good way for a business to get started on the internet.
Custom design is available through ForwardTech. ForwardTech provides quality design work at reasonable prices.




Website Hosting
Website hosting is simply the placement of your website files on a server, which is a computer customized for such a purpose. The hosting company allows the public files of your website to be displayed via the internet and by means of your domain name.
There are two primary hosting platforms - Linux & Windows. Generally, Linux is a more stable platform. Check with your website designer to see which platform is best for your particular design.
Hosting is based on disk-space and bandwidth. Disk-space is simply the amount of space (in megabytes) taken up by your files on the server. Bandwidth is the amount of transmission of your files. So, if you had 5 pages with 2 mb (an extremely high amount for 1 page) each, then you would be using 10 mb of diskspace. If 20 people per day viewed the 5 pages, then 200 mb of bandwidth would be used each day, or about 6000 mb (6 gb) per month.
Your website designer can let you know the diskspace requirements of your site.
Because of the tremendous reduction in computer hardware costs over the years, server costs have also fallen, and subsequently, hosting costs. This means website hosting is affordable for any size of business.
OurInternet.ca offers the most competitive hosting plans in Canada.



E-mail & Spam
The sending of unsolicited e-mail, or spam, is the greatest annoyance of internet users.
Becoming spam free is easy, especially if you own a domain name.
Step 1 - View an e-mail address like a hotel room number, not your permanent residence.
Step 2 - Create a new e-mail address with your ISP (internet service provider); eg. your.name@shaw.ca. DO NOT give this e-mail out to ANYONE, not even trusted friends or family. (If your e-mail is in their address book, it is vulnerable to worms). Many FREE internet services request that you register by e-mail, and then they sell your e-mail address. DO NOT place this e-mail address on your website.
Step 3 - Create a new e-mail address, or multiple e-mail addresses for different groups of contacts, using your domain name.
(eg. name1@yourdomainname.com, name2@yourdomainname.com, etc.)
You can now use either POP mail, or forward these e-mail addresses to your ISP e-mail address, or use webmail to send and receive e-mail. If using POP mail or forwarding, remember to add the new e-mail address to your e-mail program (Outlook Express, etc.)
Step 4 - If you are placing contact e-mail addresses on your website, create a graphic with the e-mail address. By not using text, spam robots will be unable to find your e-mail on your site.

If an e-mail address becomes compromised and you start receiving spam, simply create a new one, advise your contacts of the new one, and delete the compromised e-mail.

IMPORTANT - Do not forget to always keep current the Administrative Contact e-mail for your domain name.