A home on the Web.What steps should you take before launching a firm Web site? Some practitioners use their Web sites to make their firms look bigger, Burrell says. When a site creates an overblown o·ver·blown v. Past participle of overblow. adj. 1. a. Done to excess; overdone: overblown decorations. b. perception or seems to promise services or experience the firm can't deliver, "clients feel deceived," he says. Is your firm on the Web? Many CPA (Computer Press Association, Landing, NJ) An earlier membership organization founded in 1983 that promoted excellence in computer journalism. Its annual awards honored outstanding examples in print, broadcast and electronic media. The CPA disbanded in 2000. firms have carved out a presence online, using their Web sites to deliver news and information about their practices and general business issues as well as to enhance marketing efforts. A wide variety of Web site creation software is available to those who have the skills needed to design their own sites. Before you craft a site, however, the first important step is planning its design and determining how to develop a professional, interesting destination. DOS AND DON'TS Experienced Web site developers suggest a few important steps to follow when creating a presence online: 1. Determine your purpose. Will firm members use the site mainly to communicate with clients? To attract new clients in a specific industry or service area? To demonstrate the firm's technology skills? A site's conception and maintenance should be based on the firm's reason for creating it. As a rule, the more ambitious the purpose, the more time and expertise are needed to create and maintain the site. 2. Identify your audience. Do your clients use the Web? Do they have their own sites? Is the firm planning to attract new clients who are regulars on the Internet? What kinds of sites do clients regularly visit? What do they value in a Web site? The answers to these questions help make a firm's site more appealing and better suited to its ultimate purpose. 3. Check out other sites for inspiration. "Decide what you like about their appearance and what they present" advises Robert Pielech of Pielech & Pielech, a CPA firm with offices in Cumberland, Rhode Island
Cumberland is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, USA, incorporated in 1746. The population was 31,840 at the 2000 census. , and New Bedford, Massachusetts New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, located about 51 miles (82 kilometers) south of Boston, 28 miles (45 kilometers) southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about 12 miles (19 kilometers) east of Fall River. (www.pielech.com). Spend time combing the Web 'to see the wide variety of approaches taken. Then take some time to find out what other CPA firms are doing to get a sense of how to distinguish your site. 4. Develop quantifiable, concrete objectives. CPA R. A. Burrell of Cyberline, which designs and programs sites, cautions against vague goals, such as "increase sales." Choose, instead, measurable aims, such as gaining a certain percentage of new clients in a particular service area that is well suited to online marketing. While many Web site hosts focus on the number of "hits" or visits their sites receive, you may want to track more specific items, such as how many clients or other users have accessed the site to contact firm members. Without specific goals and measurable results, "you can't tell whether the site is effective or break down the results to see if you've hit one objective and not another" Burrell says. 5. Choose the best bells and whistles A slang English term for exceptional features in some product. In the computer field, it typically refers to functions in software that may be greatly appreciated by some users, even though they may not be necessary most of the time. . Web designers have a lot of exciting graphics at their fingertips "Fingertips" is a 1963 number-one hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label. Wonder's first hit single, "Fingertips" was the first live, non-studio recording to reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the United States. . "A bland home page is not attractive," Pielech says. "The first screen should have a lot of eye appeal." Overloading the site is a bad idea, however. "We wanted to keep our site looking professional, so we didn't load up with a lot of animation," says Pielech. "However, our `new developments' block flashes to call attention to it when people arrive." Remember, too, that graphics take longer to download, which often is annoying to visitors. Pielech also recommends employing links to other sites of interest to potential visitors, not only to business-related sites but also to ones that reflect firm members' professional and personal interests or specializations. Search engines, such as www.yahoo.com, are a good place to find potential sites worth linking to your own. Through the LinkExchange site, it's possible to trade banner ad A graphic image used on Web sites to advertise a product or service. Banner ads come in numerous sizes, but are often rectangles 460 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. Also 460 x 55 and 392 x 72 sizes are commonly used. space and links with companies in noncompetitive businesses as well as gain access to a host of other Web site-related services (www.linkexchange.com). 6. Offer a realistic image of your firm. "Some small practitioners spend a lot of time and money to use their Web sites to make their firms look bigger," Burrell observes. When a site creates an overblown perception or seems to promise services or experience the firm can't deliver, "clients feel deceived" he says. 7. Anticipate maintenance needs. Once the firm has trumpeted the features of its exciting new site, it's necessary to maintain an up-to-date online presence. For example, if the firm announces it will post its newsletter every month, clients will expect to find it when they visit. "You can't just drop it because you have a tax deadline," Burrell says. As a result, it's important to consider the amount of time firm members realistically can commit when planning the site. Constant updates aren't always necessary. If the site features staff bios, for example, new material isn't needed until staff members change. If the firm commits to posting new tax laws or other timely material, someone on staff must dedicate time to keeping the news fresh. Although a site that never changes won't get a lot of repeat traffic, try to keep a balance between a static site and one that demands too much of firm members' attention. SOFTWARE OPTIONS Firms that don't have the staff time or knowledge to design and maintain their own sites can bring in consultants to perform these tasks. For staff members who want to try their hands at designing a firm Web site, on the preceding page is a rundown of some of the leading products in the market. This is not an exhaustive list because many different kinds of options are open to Web site creators, but this is a good introduction to the kinds of software a CPA firm might use. In addition, some Internet service providers Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. offer home page space to subscribers, and free or low-cost Web authoring software is available online (AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. press 2.0--www.aolpress.com--is one such offering). Some of the tools in this list are geared for novice authors while others suit veteran Web masters. Some are graphical, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Pronounced "wiz-ee-wig." It refers to displaying text and graphics on screen the same as they will print on paper or display on a Web page. (what you see is what you get (jargon) What You See Is What You Get - (WYSIWYG) /wiz'ee-wig/ Describes a user interface for a document preparation system under which changes are represented by displaying a more-or-less accurate image of the way the document will finally appear, e.g. when printed. ) editors while others are code-based authoring tools. The best way to learn more about each one's features is to visit the Web sites, many of which include downloadable trial software. Remember, too, that developers often offer deals and rebates that can significantly lower the printed list prices. RELATED ARTICLE: Web Page Creation Tools Adobe PageMill PageMill (1995-2000) was one of the first WYSIWYG HTML editors for the World Wide Web. Adobe Systems released PageMill 1.0 in late 1995. It was considered revolutionary at the time as it was the first HTML editor which was considered user friendly, cited as the "PageMaker of 3.0 List price: $99. Company: Adobe Systems Adobe Systems Incorporated (pronounced a-DOE-bee IPA: /əˈdoʊbiː/) (NASDAQ: ADBE) (LSE: ABS) is an American computer software company headquartered in San Jose, California, USA. Inc., San Jose, California San Jose (IPA: /ˌsænhoʊˈzeɪ/) is the third-largest city in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Santa Clara County. . For information: 800-833-6687; www.adobe.com. Atrax The Web Publisher 4.0 List price: $99.95. Company: WinWare Inc., Corona Del Mar, California Del Mar is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. The population was 4,389 at the 2000 census. The San Diego County Fair is hosted on the Del Mar Fairgrounds every summer. . For information: 949-675-7140; www.winwareinc.com. Composer (part of the Communicator Deluxe Suite) List price: $69.95. Company: Netscape Communications Corp., Mountain View, California For the census-designated place, see Mountain View, Contra Costa County, California. For other places called "Mountain View", see . Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city gets its name from the views of the Santa Cruz Mountains. . For information: 650-937-2555; www.netscape.com/com prod/products/ communicator/product_family/comm_retailde.html. Drumbeat See Drumbeat 2000. 2.0 List price: $699. Company: Elemental Software, Carlsbad, California. For information: 800-967-7476; www.elementalsoftware.com. HomePage 3.0 List price: $99. Company: FileMaker, Inc., Santa Clara, California Santa Clara, California (IPA: /ˌsæntəˈklærə/) , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. . For information: 800-325-2747; www.claris.com. HomeSite 3.0 List price: $89 (as download, $79). Company: Allaire Corp., Cambridge, Massachusetts. For information: 888-939-2545; www.allaire.com. HotDog Professional 5 List price: $149.95. Company: Sausage Software, Melbourne, Australia. For information: www.sausage.com. HoTMetaL PRO 4.0 List Price: $129. Company: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Ontario. For information: 800-387-2777; www.softquad.com. HTML Assistant Pro 97 List price: $99.95 (as download, $89.95). Company: Brooklyn North Software Works Inc., Halifax, Nova Scotia For other uses, see Halifax. Halifax, Nova Scotia may refer to any of the following:
Macromedia Dreamweaver 1.2 List price: $299. Company: Macromedia Inc., San Francisco. For information: 800-457-1774; www.macromedia.com. Microsoft FrontPage 98 List price: $149. Company: Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Washington. For information: 800-426-9400; www.microsoft.com/frontpage. NetObjects Fusion 3.0 for Windows List price: $295. Company: NetObjects Inc., Redwood City, California Redwood City is a suburb located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Redwood City is the county seat of San Mateo County. As of the 2005 census, the city had a total population of 76,000. . For information: 888-449-6400; www.netobjects.com. Pictorius inet Developer 4.0 List Price: Call for pricing. Company: Pictorius Inc., Halifax, Nova Scotia. For information: 800-927-4847; www.pictorius.com. QuickSite 3.0 List price: $49.95. Company: Site Technologies, Scotts Valley, California Scotts Valley is a small city located in eastern Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about ten miles (16 km) south of San Jose and six miles (10 km) north of the beach in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 11,385. . For information: 800-446-6955; www.sitetech.com. Visual Page 2.0 List price: $99.95. Company: Symantec Corp., Cupertino, California. For information: 800-441-7234; www.symantec.com. WebberActive 4.0 List price: $149. Company: ExperTelligence, Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara is a city in California, United States. It is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 92,325. . For information: 800-888-8670; www.expertelligence.com. WebEdit PRO 3.0 List price: $89.95. Company: Luckman Interactive, Los Angeles. For information: 800-711-2676; www.luckman.com. Web Designer 1.1 (part of WebMaster Suite) List price: $299 for WebMaster Suite. Company: Corel Corp., Ottawa, Ontario For information: 800-772-6735; www.corel.com. |
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