Anthea McGibbon, Staff Reporter

THE QUEST to capture more clients drives many entrepreneurs into expanding their business horizons on the World Wide Web.

According to 15-year consultant Michael Conally, building a viable website is less difficult than most persons think.

Conally is CEO of a London-based media/news media company delivering IT consultancy to media organisations and company clients.

The tools necessary depend on skills, budget and objectives to be achieved through the site.

For the more adept expert, simple software, such as Notepad text which usually comes with one's personal computer, can be used.

With a little less experience, persons use Microsoft Word, FrontPage or Dreamweaver programme to design the basic site themselves.

Persons with no experience or with few technical skills can rely on free web tools (like Web Builder, etc.) provided by their site's hosting company.

Conally's quick, easy steps

1) Registering the domain name that represents what your business is all about. Top-level domains .com, .net or .org are the most frequently used.

2) Get space with a hosting company. At times, free domain name registration is included in the package.

3) Design the site or contract a professional web developer to do so.

TIP: Make sure the name is ideal, memorable and interesting enough to be searched up easily.

4) Market the site. Marketing strategies include a) inviting people to visit; b) joining as many groups and communities that will allow you to expose your site to your desired audience; c) signing up with search engines and web directories so that your site will be indexed.

5) Managing, monitoring and maintaining of the site. This translates to assigning priority to ensuring that links are not broken, queries are answered quickly and establishing a favourable reputation.

Conally explains that the main challenges one will encounter online are the same ones you will find offline. Topping the list is a failure to identify a viable business idea and not identifying or knowing your intended clients/users/buyers.

Possible setbacks

He also identifies an inability to execute the right marketing plan, insufficient finance to launch and run the business, along the learning-curve challenge as possible setbacks.

The appropriate solutions depend on money, skills, site purpose and reason for having the website in the first place. It is always preferable to have a professional handle all the stuff you won't be able to master, not to mention firewalling hackers.

For top-end designs, source a professional website developer/designer to achieve optimal results.

After all, they are the ones with expertise and experience to transform a good idea into a great one.

Finding an expert can be difficult, but Conally suggests that clients first determine their budget. The best in the business don't come cheap. Surfing the Net is an easy way to find a professional, especially as the samples of their work are readily accessible.

Sites such as getcaughtmedia.com, http://www.gojamaica-host.com/, emc.edu.jm, wcpo.mbja.net and Guru.com are recommended.

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