Frequently Asked Questions

1.) What is a website?
2.) What can a website do for my business?
3.) Can a bad website harm my business?
4.) Why should I have my website professionally designed?
5.) Are websites a cost effective way to advertise?
6.) What is a Content Management System (CMS)
7.) What is Multimedia?
8.) Are traditional forms of media becoming obsolete?
9.) What is a domain name?
10.) How do I register a Domain Name?
11.) What is a web server / web hosting?
12.) What is Macromedia Flash?
13.) What is an IP address?
14.) What is a Database?
15.) What is HTML?
16.) What is JavaScript?
17.) What is PHP/ASP/COLD FUSION?

1.) What is a website?

A digitally created presentation of information stored on a server, which is part of the World Wide Web. Each website contains a home page, which is the first document users see when they enter the site. The site might also contain additional documents and files. Each site is owned and managed by an individual, company or organization.     Top

2.) What can a website do for my business?

Every business is different. The Internet can help in many ways. Websites can be utilized to increase sales, increase traffic to your physical location, improve customer service, manage your supply chain, increase internal efficiency, improve communications with branches, divisions, salesmen, representatives, suppliers, and customers, and for many other purposes. We need to take a look at your specific business, determine your goals, and find how the Internet can best help your business.

Websites can be utilized to do much more than just increasing or facilitating sales. The Internet is an efficient communication and information-sharing tool. A website could be developed to improve your customer service, manage your supply chain, increase internal efficiency, improve communications, etc. It depends upon your business goals.     Top

3.) Can a bad website harm my business?

Absolutely, if a website does not to fit your business and accomplish your goals, you'd be better off without one. A website represents you to the world, just as your storefront represents you to local traffic. A poorly designed site can harm or destroy your business!      Top

4.) Why should I have my website professionally designed?

In general most of the general public do not have the time, tools or professional background for proper website design. Some people who design their own websites have a tendency to create slow, confusing or incomplete websites. We are sure you've seen some of these sites. This becomes a shame, because potential customers leave these sites simply due to poor design or navigation.      Top

5.) Are websites a cost effective way to advertise?

Having a strong Web presence is the most cost-effective way to advertise one's products and/or services to the world. Moreover, certain technologies allow websites to be extremely interactive and, therefore, more attractive to potential customers. In addition, websites can help gather valuable information from your target audience, thus enabling you to execute more effective online and offline marketing campaigns.     Top

6.) What is a Content Management System (CSM)

A Content Management System is a software application that make it easy to create and maintain content on websites giving you the ability of easy content production without programming skills.

7.) What is Multimedia?

Multimedia is the use of computers to present text, graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way. Long touted as the future revolution in computing, multimedia applications were, until the mid-90s uncommon due to the expensive hardware required. With increases in performance and decreases in price however, multimedia is now commonplace.

Because of the storage demands of multimedia applications, the most effective media are CD-ROMs.      Top

8.) Are traditional forms of media becoming obsolete?

The history of media has seldom witnessed a new media replacing an old one. Rather they layer themselves on each other. In terms of advertising, each media has particular strengths, which can be used to lead the prospective customer through different stages of the sales funnel.

Based on historical precedents, the need for a range of advertising tools, and the basic instinct for survival, we expect to see a trend toward diversification among advertising publishers.      Top

9.) What is a domain name?

A name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URL's to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.microsoft.com/index.html, the domain name is microsoft.com.

Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top-level domain it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:

gov - Government agencies
edu - Educational institutions
org - Organizations (nonprofit)
mil - Military
com - commercial business
net - Network organizations
ca - Canada

Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, every Web server requires a Domain Name System server to translate domain names into IP addresses.      Top

10.) How do I register a Domain Name?

The only way to register and start using a domain name is to use the services of a domain name registrar. The domain name industry is regulated and overseen by ICANN, the organization that is responsible for certifying companies as domain name registrars. At one time there was only one domain name registrar - Network Solutions, Inc. - but today there are dozens of accredited registrars. Only a domain name registrar is permitted to access and modify the master database of domain names maintained by InterNIC. The master database contains the documentation on all of the domain names registered to date. InterNIC provides a list of accredited domain name registrars here.

If you come across a registrar that is not on the list it is most likely that the organization is acting as a reseller for one of the accredited registrars as only an accredited registrar has the ability to modify the database of domain names.

ICANN-accredited registrars have the authority to assign domain names for the Top Level Domains of .com, .biz. .info, .name, .net, and .org. ICANN does not, however, specifically accredit registrars to provide registration services for country code TLDs.

The registrar you choose will determine the cost for registering a domain name, but in general expect to pay a yearly fee. Some registrars will offer discounts if you register for more than one year, but no registrar has the authority to sell more than a 10-year registration contract for any domain name. The registrar will ask you to provide some contact and technical information to have on record. This information is stored in a registry, which other computers can access to find information on your site. While it may seem like a privacy issue, it is best to be honest when supplying the contact information to a registrar. The registrar can cancel a contract and resell the domain name if it cannot contact an actual person to settle legal issues that may arise.      Top

11.) What is a web server / web hosting?

A computer that delivers (serves up) Web pages. In order for your Web Site to be viewed by the public, it must be stored on one of these computers. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name. For example, if you enter the URL http://www.microsoft.com/index.html in your browser, this sends a request to the server whose domain name is microsoft.com. The server then fetches the page named index.html and sends it to your browser.

Any computer can be turned into a Web server by installing server software and connecting the machine to the Internet. There are many Web server software applications, including public domain software from NCSA and Apache, and commercial packages from Microsoft, Netscape and others.      Top

12.) What is Macromedia Flash?

A bandwidth friendly and browser independent vector-graphic animation technology that can be used both on the Internet and on CD ROMs. As long as different browsers are equipped with the necessary plug-ins, Flash animations will look the same through-out all browsers.

Flash is developed by Macromedia Inc.     Top

13.) What is a IP address?

An identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. Networks using the TCP/IP protocol route messages based on the IP address of the destination. The format of an IP address is a 32-bit numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods. Each number can be zero to 255. For example, 1.160.10.240 could be an IP address.      Top

14.) What is a Database?

A collection of information organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data. You can think of a database as an electronic filing system.

Traditional databases are organized by field, record, and file. A field is a single piece of information; a record is one complete set of fields; and a file is a collection of records. For example, a telephone book is analogous to a file. It contains a list of records, each of which consists of three fields: name, address, and telephone number.     Top

15.) What is HTML?

Short for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web..

HTML defines the structure and layout of a Web document by using a variety of tag and attribute. The correct structure for an HTML document starts with <HTML><HEAD>(enter here what document is about)</HEAD><BODY> and ends with </BODY></HTML>. All the information you'd like to include in your Web page fits in between the <BODY> and </BODY> tags.

There are hundreds of other tags used to format and layout the information in a Web page. For instance, <P> is used to make paragraphs and <I> … </I>is used to italicize fonts. Tags are also used to specify hypertext links. These allow Web developers to direct users to other Web pages with only a click of the mouse on either an image or word(s).      Top

16.) What is JavaScript?

A scripting language script developed by Netscape to enable authors to design interactive sites. Although it shares many of the features and structures of the full Java language Java, it was developed independently. JavaScript can interact with HTML source code, enabling Web authors to spice up their sites with dynamic content. JavaScript is endorsed by a number of software companies and is an open architecture language that anyone can use without purchasing a license software licensing. It is supported by recent browsers from Netscape and Microsoft, though Internet Explorer supports only a subset, which Microsoft calls Jscript .     Top

17.) What is PHP/ASP/COLD FUSION?

These are server-side, HTML embedded scripting languages used to create dynamic Web pages.

Because these programming languages is embedded within tags, the author can jump between HTML and the script instead of having to rely on heavy amounts of code to output HTML. Because PHP is executed on the server, the client cannot view the PHP code.

These programming languages can perform many tasks, but there strength lies in their compatibility with many types of databases. They are used in a way that lets a user search a database, when the search is complete, it is created into a web page and displayed. Using this method, web pages do not have to be updated when products, info, picture, etc need to be added. They are simply added to the database, and are them reflected on the website.     Top