Topics Covered:
Why should I have my own website?
How much will it cost?
Can I manage it myself?
What decisions do I need to make to get started?
Why should I have my own website?
How much will it cost?
Can I manage it myself?
What decisions do I need to make to get started?
Why should I have my own website?
New patients will look up your website to see how good you are. If you have no website, they may not take your business seriously.
Websites are great for providing contact information, directions to your location and procedures that you support.
A website will both allow existing clients to learn more about your business and its changes, and also will help new client to get to know what to expect from your business.
How much will it cost?
There are a ton of options for who to use for hosting and registering a domain, however here is my recommendation:
http://www.hostgator.com/ (Hatchling Plan)
$67/yr. + $15 to register a domain = $82/ yr.
Generally the annual hosting cost will be the largest expense.
Can I manage it myself?
Host Gator (recommended above) has a free easy website builder. A demo is available here (http://www.hostgator.com/shared)
GoDaddy.com is another site to purchase your domain name (url) that you can also build your site through their add on service.
Site Builder and WordPress are also both free tools to help you rapidly and easily design your own website.
Here are what is involved:
First you choose a template that has similar layout, images and colors to what you want your website to look like. Then you change the content (text) in the website to relate to your own business. Typically there are also changes to the template you can make to further customize the look of the site to your own unique artistic style.
Modifying these templates is very much like changing a template in Word, where the layout has been set for you and you are just changing the content. You can do it!
What decisions do I need to make to get started?
1. Domain name is important, here are some guidelines:
Easy to say and remember
Easy to spell
Short is better than long
Use short words that have only one way to spell them.
For instance:
MightyMasseuse.com is hard to spell and easy to confuse.
StrongHands.com, however is easy to remember and spell!
2. Should I pay a web developer or do it myself?
If you have more money than time, certainly pay someone, but be sure it is easy for you to modify, have them use a template based system like those listed above, even if it is not as fancy. (Avoid Flash sites, they are on the outs as iPhones don't support them).
If you have more time available than money you want to spend, use a website builder and just fill in the content. You will see how easy it can be to design.
3. When should I get started?
It will take some time to get the domain and hosting chosen and setup, so start immediately and figure it will take about a month before you are done tinkering with it and want to share it with your customers.
If you have any questions relating to this article on starting a website, please post your questions in the "Ask the Expert" discusssion forum.
Best Luck getting started!
Mark Eckdahl,
Chief Evangelist and Site Architect at ScheduleMax Online Scheduling. (www.schedulemax.com)
P.S. In future trainings I can show you how to boost your sales by adding scheduling to your business website, which is my specialty!
Mark can be reached at: mark@schedulemax.com
Article provided by:
Irene Diamond (CEO & Founder at SuccessfulMassageTherapist.Org)
No comments:
Post a Comment