By Alissa Arford-Leyl
Web Wise
Marketing Your Business With A Home Page
If you have a business, you should have a home page on the World Wide Web (WWW). It's as simple as that! It is an excellent medium for marketing and advertising because you will be able to increase your company's visibility, enhance your image, and facilitate quick and easy communications with prospective customers through e-mail. Having an accurate and timely Web site takes some effort and planning, and you will need someone to respond to inquiries and make updates.
Domain Names
The first thing you need to get on-line is a domain name (a unique identifier) or space at an existing one, and an IP (Internet Protocol) number. An IP address is a series of numbers that will correspond with your domain name. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may provide you with space for a home page under their domain name or they can register a domain name for you at the InterNIC (NIC = Net-work Information Center) and give you the IP number. InterNIC reported 1,065,191 domain registrations in March 1997 alone, so you should come up with several alternative domain names for your site and check the InterNIC Web site for availability before registering.
Domain names, which have traditionally been registered on a first-come, first-serve basis, usually look like this: companyname.com. The entire Uniform Resource Locator (URL) would be http://www.companyname.com, and this is what you use as your Internet address.
Creating A Web Site
Once you have space on a server, you will need to create your Web site. What is the purpose of your Web site? Is it a general brochure on your business? Supplemental advertising to target new audiences? A source of information and entertainment? Once you decide what type of information to include, you can start the design process.
If you know HTML (hypertext mark-up language), creating a basic site is fairly easy. There are plenty of resources on the Web to teach you about HTML programming. Also, there is software available that will convert normal word documents into HTML, automatically. However, if you want a complex site with forms, animated graphics and other fun things, you should probably get a Web developer to design your site for you.
Web Developer
When looking for a Web developer, you should talk to others who have Web sites and surf the Web to see who developed the sites that you like. Write down the URLs of these sites and give them to your developer as ideas of what you have in mind for your site.
Some developers may focus on graphics and the appearance of the site, while others may put more importance on conveying information and using special databases. Web developers might have a background in computer science, art, advertising, information systems or really anything for that matter -- so look at sites they have designed and do some research before you choose one.
Design Tips
Keep in mind that fancy graphics are impressive after they are loaded, but Internet users with slower modems may not want to wait for the image to come up. Most sources say that graphics should be under 50K, and under 20K is even better. However, once you have an image on one page, you can use it on other pages as often as you like because it will have already been saved in the user's cache file.
ASA Ads
The Automotive Service Association (ASA) will design a one-page advertisement/home page for your company to be linked to your shop's listing in the Find Nearest ASA Shop section of the ASA Web site. Call (800) 272-7467, extension 234, or send e-mail to alissa@asashop.org for more information.
Geek Speak
InterNIC: The organization that registers domain names, http://www.internic.net .
Internet Protocol (IP) number: An Internet address that is a unique number consisting of four parts separated by dots, sometimes called a "dotted quad." Every Internet computer has an IP number and most have a domain name that can substitute for the dotted quad. (For example: 208.211.90.105 = http://www.asashop.org)
ASA Web Ways
The ASA Web site (http://www.asashop.org) now offers a summary of state legislative and regulatory issues, located within the Views & News section. This new summary lists state legislation relating to the automotive industry and is updated regularly.
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