Building Websites. Building Success.

Purpose of Your Website

This is the most important issue to consider when deciding you need a web site. There are many articles on the Internet about this subject so I won’t try to cover every reason here.

The purpose of your web site is the starting point and should be taken very seriously. Your decisions now will determine what kind of site to design and which elements to include. Many other essentials such as colors, layout, graphics and typography will be determined after the exact purpose decided upon.

Here is a list of reasons to get you thinking about what you might to consider when deciding what the purpose is going to be. The items listed are definitely not the only reasons for a web site, please sent a comment with a purpose so I can add it to the list.

• To attract people to your office, shop or store.
• Motivate people to telephone you
• Facilitate in-store visits
• Keep existing customers coming back
• Sell products online
• Earn money advertising

Each example will determine what to include in the site. For example - motivating people to call you. You will be looking for leads or appointments, such as attorneys, physicians, dentist, insurance agencies, CPA’s and contractors.

Once purpose is formulated the important information can be added to the site. The importance of each part can be accessed and included with the most important information will be placed in the appropriate and predominate spots on the home page.

Keeping in mind that not everyone who visits your site will get there via the home page, contact information should be display on every page. I also believe that a contact page should be one click away, especially if that is the purpose of your site.

OpenOffice the other kid on the block

Need a office suite to write letters, create spreadsheets or database, or a develop a presentation, but cannot afford the one from MS. Well OpenOffice has everything you need.

OpenOffice.org is both a fully-featured office suite compatible with leading office products, and a virtual community working through OpenOffice.org’s numerous projects. The community comes together at www.openoffice.org to develop, support, and promote the use of OpenOffice.org. For information on joining the OpenOffice.org community, visit our Introduction page.

The suite is comparable with Microsoft Office and can save documents in Office format. This makes sharing documents a breeze. I use it and highly recommend it. Not only is the price right (free) but you can update it for free also.

Visit the OpenOffice.org site and download the latest version 2.3 and get it a try. I believe you’ll be impressed by the product.

A Guide to Business Blogging v2

Ladies and gentlemen, the afore mentioned Guide To Business Blogging v2 is now available for free download. This 18 page page pdf will help the beginner blogger get up to speed with the decisions that need to be made before a post is written. It will also help bloggers who need an outline for creating successful, popular, highly trafficked blogs.

Enjoy!