Tips on establishing your online presence
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.