© VARE Consulting Ltd
What you get
The difference
If you are thinking about establishing a website for your small business or association, you will probably be checking out different providers and what they can offer. There will likely be two main criteria that will be the deciding factors: style/functionality and cost. We will explain how we deal with these.Style and functionality
Most websites start with a standard template. There are many thousands of these produced by designers and, although they represent a quick way of starting the process, they need modification to personalise them, not just to meet your particular requirements, but to ensure that it does not look like anybody else who is using the same template. For this, we can use standard clip art that presents the right sort of image for your business/association, but it is important to also incorporate unique images or graphics that pertain to your activities. These can be pictures of individuals, buildings, products, activities, or similar. They can be stylised by cropping or with effects such as colour washes. A logo an important asset for a business and this can be repeated for impact on the different pages. Such images are important to add variety to the site and to break up long passages of text, which might otherwise appear dreary. But it is important to recognise that while images provide interest, it is text and functionality that sells on a website. How many times have you been persuaded to buy something on a website by the apparent value and utility that is on offer, only to find that the systems are so awkward to use that you give up in the end? It is imperative to avoid this happening by taking the user through the process of being explicit about what is on offer.Management of the website
Most website developers charge you a monthly fee for maintaining the website. Maintenance is important, as your requirements will change over time and the website will need to reflect how things are progressing. Indeed, our expectation is that your website will change significantly over time. But once the structure is set up, there is no reason why you cannot manage the website yourself. If you are a competent PowerPoint user, you will find it easy to make even big changes to the website once it is under your control: changing text and graphics, creating new pages (just duplicate a page and change the text and graphics). Even a competent Word user will be able to do the basics. For this, we provide you with a commercially available programme that resides on your PC or laptop. (You can have it installed on two PCs/laptops at any one time). We provide you with the file that comprises your original website which you load into the programme for editing. You can edit this file, producing and saving as many different versions of the file as you like. It takes a matter of minutes - depending on the speed of your PC and internet connection - to upload an edited version of the website. That means that you can try out variations quickly, have versions for different seasons or periods, and change the website to meet your growing needs by, for instance, extending pages or adding new ones. These changes can be made on your PC/laptop and, only when you are satisfied, and want to make the changes, do you upload your modified file. The programme has an indefinite life, although the package that we provide only includes updates to the programme for a year. After that, the programme will continue working as normal and you can continue to use it just as you have during the year, modifying and updating your website. You can, of course, pay a charge to continue to receive updates to the programme at the end of the first year. In addition, after the end of the first year, you will need to renew your domain name and your web hosting service. You can. of course, acquire a new domain name, in addition to or instead of your current website. You can also change your hosting platform to another. Al, of this gives you control and flexibility with no additional cost in the first 12 months and low costs thereafter.
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design
What you get
The difference
If you are thinking about establishing a website for your small business or association, you will probably be checking out different providers and what they can offer. There will likely be two main criteria that will be the deciding factors: style/functionality and cost. We will explain how we deal with these.Style and functionality
Most websites start with a standard template. There are many thousands of these produced by designers and, although they represent a quick way of starting the process, they need modification to personalise them, not just to meet your particular requirements, but to ensure that it does not look like anybody else who is using the same template. For this, we can use standard clip art that presents the right sort of image for your business/association, but it is important to also incorporate unique images or graphics that pertain to your activities. These can be pictures of individuals, buildings, products, activities, or similar. They can be stylised by cropping or with effects such as colour washes. A logo an important asset for a business and this can be repeated for impact on the different pages. Such images are important to add variety to the site and to break up long passages of text, which might otherwise appear dreary. But it is important to recognise that while images provide interest, it is text and functionality that sells on a website. How many times have you been persuaded to buy something on a website by the apparent value and utility that is on offer, only to find that the systems are so awkward to use that you give up in the end? It is imperative to avoid this happening by taking the user through the process of being explicit about what is on offer.Management of the website
Most website developers charge you a monthly fee for maintaining the website. Maintenance is important, as your requirements will change over time and the website will need to reflect how things are progressing. Indeed, our expectation is that your website will change significantly over time. But once the structure is set up, there is no reason why you cannot manage the website yourself. If you are a competent PowerPoint user, you will find it easy to make even big changes to the website once it is under your control: changing text and graphics, creating new pages (just duplicate a page and change the text and graphics). Even a competent Word user will be able to do the basics. For this, we provide you with a commercially available programme that resides on your PC or laptop. (You can have it installed on two PCs/laptops at any one time). We provide you with the file that comprises your original website which you load into the programme for editing. You can edit this file, producing and saving as many different versions of the file as you like. It takes a matter of minutes - depending on the speed of your PC and internet connection - to upload an edited version of the website. That means that you can try out variations quickly, have versions for different seasons or periods, and change the website to meet your growing needs by, for instance, extending pages or adding new ones. These changes can be made on your PC/laptop and, only when you are satisfied, and want to make the changes, do you upload your modified file. The programme has an indefinite life, although the package that we provide only includes updates to the programme for a year. After that, the programme will continue working as normal and you can continue to use it just as you have during the year, modifying and updating your website. You can, of course, pay a charge to continue to receive updates to the programme at the end of the first year. In addition, after the end of the first year, you will need to renew your domain name and your web hosting service. You can. of course, acquire a new domain name, in addition to or instead of your current website. You can also change your hosting platform to another. Al, of this gives you control and flexibility with no additional cost in the first 12 months and low costs thereafter.
