Whose website is it anyway?
By Bob Schwartz, CRS, GRI ©2007 Promotions Unlimited All rights
reserved.
Everyone knows the Internet is like the Wild West. There are
schemes, scams and suckers out there in cyberspace. How does one
take advantage of the real opportunities while avoiding the
pitfalls?
The simple answer is to be careful; be very careful! Most important,
investigate & verify. Below are some common Internet scams used on
attorneys:
Large practice or independent practice, you should have a website.
Your website should be promoted in your ads, on your letterhead, and
on business cards. The essential components of a proper website are
your own top level domain name, a properly designed site and
dependable hosting for your site.
A. Buy your own top level domain name. For example, a top level
domain is www.sanddiegolawyerforyou.com . Domains such as
www.sandiegolawyerforyou.com/bob-schwartz.htm , and
www.websitetrafficbuilders/law/bob-schwartz.htm are an examples of
sub-domains. Sub-domains are part of top-level domains and are
sometimes offered free as an incentive to buy other services. The
issue with sub-domains is that you are not the owner of the domain
and any advertising or promotion you do for the sub-domain, mostly
benefits the top-level domain. The same can also be said for “free”
domain package deals. The best way to secure a top level is to first
check availability, and then register the name (URL) for at least
three to five years!
B .Domain Hosting – Now that you have your own domain name you need a
place to host it. First check for an uptime guarantee. I recommend
you do NOT even pay attention to a hosting plan that does not
guarantee at least 99.9% uptime! The cost here depends on a number
of factors, the most valuable of which are the amount of space you
need for your site and some extra for future growth, monthly data
transfer, statistics package for analyzing your site’s traffic, the
number of email accounts available, and if you want a dedicated IP.
I recommend for most small firms and single practices a basic
package that provides approximately 25 GB data transfer, five email
accounts, 500 MB of disk space and a good statistics package. The
cost for such a plan should typically run about $5.50 per month when
paid on a yearly basis.
C. Website Design – Again, the cost greatly relies on the site’s size
requirements and design features. For the vast majority of
individual practitioners and small firms, the cost here should go
for approximately $400 to $600.
Site Maintenance – This should be very small for most. Contact your
local Junior college for affordable assistance or if you are a
hands-on person, look into Microsoft’s FrontPage. This is a very
popular program with probably any feature you’ll need. Knowledge of
HTML, the basic programming language of Internet websites, is not
necessary.
Copyright 2007 Promotions Unlimited. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Schwartz, is the founder of Promotions Unlimited
(search engine optimization) a Internet legal directory (CA, TX &
Las Vegas) publisher and search engine placement technology analyst.
You can contact Bob via e-mail at seo711@gmail.com or visit his
San
Diego legal directory at: www.sandiegolawyerforyou.com
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