FOR EITHER A BUSINESS or freelance operator a website can serve much the same purpose as a catalogue or portfolio, telling people much more about what you offer than, say, a brief ad in the papers or on air.
Not only is it cheaper than running off a pile of brochures that will mostly get binned, but it saves on trees and the content can be changed at any time. This makes a website perfect for posting your latest news and prices rather than having to mail them regularly to clients.
The design cost of websites obviously depends on how much you want to say but as a rough guide a site on the scale and pattern of that on the left could set you back only a few hundred pounds. Domain names and web space start from around £50.
Supplementary pages (enlargements of pictures etc.) can be useful for keeping your design compact. Once a format is established they add little to the overall cost of your site. Picture enlargements can pop up in new frames like those on the right, or have a page to themselves like the one below.
SO IF YOU'RE THINKING of investing in a website how great, you may be wondering, will be the return? Well, it's usually impossible to say in advance but if you think of your website mainly as an economic way of displaying what you do, anything beyond that will be a bonus.
View it mainly as a portfolio, booklet (or even book) that will show the world what you have to offer. It's useful being able to send people straight to your website for details instead of having to repeat them endlessly to potential clients.
As part of the service your site will have keywords that people can pick up on, and the main search engines will learn of your existence. People will be able to find you easily enough on the net if they ask the right questions, but don't expect email orders from complete strangers to come flooding in unless the service you offer is extremely specialised.
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