Tips on establishing your online presence

By Vishnu K. Mahmud

JAKARTA (JP): Neither the NASDAQ crash nor the death of the various dotcoms have decreased the market enthusiasm for web hosting and design.

More personal homepages are set up as new users get "wired", meaning more people are using the Internet and more consumers are browsing the World Wide Web for information, which is excellent for the internet communication strategies of corporations.

Those that are online, that is.

It is a well-known fact that the net is the most efficient medium for publishing and sharing data.

Customers looking for information about products and services only have to go to web portals and search engines to get the latest information from personal and corporate websites before making a decision.

Companies who are currently online have a business advantage since their information is available like a print or video ad, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But what kind of a website do you need? A simple, static homepage that has a listing of all your products and services or a flashy website with streaming video and dynamic (constantly changing) content?

It all depends on what your business needs are.

Every time someone asks me what kind of computer should they get, a Pentium 4-based computer or the latest AMD processor, I always ask them, "What do you intend to do with that computer?"

If their answer were "just for surfing the net and word processing", I would tell them to get a Pentium 3 or older processor. You don't need the most powerful computer on the planet to go online or type reports.

If you play high-end games, edit video, make music or develop software, then you should get the maximum machinery your budget allows.

But for your business online presence, what do you need?

There are two types of websites, development-wise. One is the static, or fixed, website whose content is always the same. If changes or additional WebPages are deemed necessary, they would need to be altered or created using HTML (hyper text mark-up language).

A good example of static websites would be personal homepages that are almost never updated such as http://members.nbci.com/smffhq/, a Sailor Moon Fan site.

However, a plumber in England can also use a static website since his services and fees are almost constant (see: http://www.bath-doctor.co.uk).

The other type is the dynamic, or constantly changing website.

The WebPages of this Internet site are created "on-the-fly", based on the latest data available. These websites use specialized server programs and database applications to continuously update themselves.

Site administrators use dedicated back-end programs linked to the web database to enter new content. Astaga, Detik and CNN would be prime examples of a dynamic website, as the news changes constantly on these sites.

Of the two types, the static website is the easiest to create.

Using simple software programs (such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver), one can easily fashion one's WebPages and Internet site with the help of wizards and tutorials.

There are many specialized firms in Indonesia who can create your database-back website using applications ranging from the powerful (but ultra-expensive) Vignette Storyserver (used by CNN) to Cold Fusion (used by Autobytel, an e-commerce website) to the free PHP/MySQL-based software (used by countless others).

These e-solution firms can assist you in narrowing down your e-commerce or e-communicating needs as well as guide you to the appropriate software and hardware packages.

Apart from price, you must also consider time, speed, the level of difficulty of the project, and the possibility of future upgrades before choosing an e-solutions firm.

You must also consider hosting services where your internet site will be connected on to the Internet. Again, there are many options.

You could try a complimentary provider such as yahoo!com but these sites are only free for personal homepages. You can rent "web space" to put up your internet site from Web Hosting Providers like Atomic Cow (www.atomiccow.com) and pay by the month or year.

Co-location is the most expensive but best way of putting your site on the Internet.

Using your own (or leased) hardware, you basically have your own super connection to the Internet for outside users to access your site. Many Internet Service Providers (ISP) and Data Centers in Jakarta can offer industrial grade Internet bandwidth so your users can quickly access your site be it from Bandung to Bosnia.

Most web portals like Astaga and Satunet are located in Data Centers to handle the onslaught of users at different times.

So, what do you need? A simple static homepage placed at a free server such as geocities.com or an industrial strength e- commerce portal that has up-to-the-minute late breaking news?

Either way, you should always decide what would be the best (and most efficient) method of communicating your ideas to your users and prospective clients.

Bigger is not always better as the now defunct e-toys, boo.com and buy.com have found out.

The writer is an IT consultant based in Jakarta. Questions? Contact Vishnu at vmahmud@id.mweb.com.