GETTING STARTED:

1. How does a project get started?
After an initial meeting and upon review of the timeline, requirements, and budget for your project, iwebminds.com will send a proposal that includes a cost estimate and list of deliverables. Upon acceptance of the proposal, iwebminds.com will begin the web site development process.

2. What if we are not sure what the requirements are for the site we envision?
Some clients may choose to consult with iwebminds.com to develop a thorough list of requirements for their project prior to signing a full-scale production agreement. If this is the case, both parties will sign an agreement specifying that you have agreed to hire iwebminds.com for an initial needs assessment consultation.

3. How many iwebminds.com staff members will be assigned to my project?
iwebminds.com assigns 1 to 2 persons per project team: a creative director, a project manager, and other staff members depending on the complexity of the site.

4. How does the communication and review process work?
Foremost, your personal project manager will always be available for any questions or any communications. You can monitor the time spent on your project on a daily basis. You will be able to view the status of your project as the work progresses.

5. What if our business is located in a city outside of your geographical area?
Many of iwebminds.com most satisfied clients are from out of our geographical area.

Most communication on a Web development project is conducted via e-mail, telephone and fax. All mock-ups and deliverables can be readily viewed in Web format via a browser. Generally, iwebminds.com makes two- to three-on site visits during a two- to three-month project.

6. How do we ensure that we get the end result we want for our site launch?
iwebminds.com excels at meeting client expectations during every phase of the project. Because our approach includes the client during the entire development process, there are no surprises at the time of completion.

iwebminds.com guarantees that all final deliverables meet professional industry standards in craftsmanship and quality, and will be free of defects.

7. How does iwebminds.com set its fees?
Our project estimates are based on time and materials. Our hourly rates begin at $30 for administrative communications, meetings and HTML work. High-level creative architecture design, graphic services and production graphics are charged at $40 per hour, and programming and database management work at $50 per hour.

8. What are iwebminds.com payments and approval process?
A one-half prepayment is required at the start of a project. Subsequent payments correspond to the completion of specified milestones and are always contingent upon client satisfaction.

9. What is the revision process and how many are included in the initial cost estimate?
Your project will include two revision rounds after presentation of first mock-ups. Each mock-up and revision will be posted on the project site or email for your review and approval.

10. Will there be any extra fees incurred during the project that were not specified in the initial cost estimate?
Extra revisions, change-orders, or Web pages requested by the client beyond terms agreed to in the contract will be billed hourly. iwebminds.com will obtain verbal or written permission from client before performing additional billable work above and beyond the fee set forth in the work order.

11. How long will it take to complete your project?
iwebminds.com prides itself in having one of the fastest turnaround times in the industry. From the production agreement, iwebminds.com averages an 2- to 6-week turnaround time.

12. Who will retain ownership and copyrights for all brand Identity and creative work?
Clients retain complete copyright ownership of all final artwork and deliverables.

MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS:

13. Why should I establish a Worldwide Web presence?
A professional Web presence is an online, interactive brochure for your firm that will enhance the image and appeal of your organization as well as the products or services it provides. A Web presence will improve client relations, help your firm acquire valuable business contacts, and could serve as a forum where your existing clients can share information with each other. Adding services to your site, such as newsletters, press releases, testimonials, allows potential clients to delve even more deeply into your firm's philosophy and character. Although your Web presence permits you to be visited by people from all around the world, an appreciable number of them will live in your local area. Providing a lively and informative Web site for these potential customers will do much to convince them that they should visit your location in person.

14. How is a Web presence different from traditional advertising?
A Web presence is much like radio, print, or television advertising in that your goal is to determine your target audience and make a lasting impression on them. Using traditional advertising it is possible to make a poorly conceived advertisement work for you as long as you saturate the medium being used. This is not the case on the Worldwide Web. If your site is complicated, poorly designed, and impossible to navigate easily, people will simply move on and probably never return. Unlike traditional forms of advertising, visitors to your site, whether they followed a link or found you through a search engine, arrive there because they are already interested in something you have to offer. With that bonus in your favor, a well-constructed Web site is what it takes to demonstrate to them that they are in the right place.

16. What things should I consider when developing my site's layout?
Should you decide to do it yourself, a first consideration is to make certain that your layout allows visitors to easily absorb the information presented, and that it allows for efficient navigation.

If you do not have enough content on your site to justify a sophisticated layout, then don't feel obliged to rationalize the use of one; in other words, if your site's message is going to be simple, then keep your layout simple. A well-designed layout will:

Make important page links obvious to your visitors.
Allow visitors to obtain the information they want in two mouse button clicks.
Keep visitors from having to hunt for page links to get more information.

17. What things should I consider when designing graphics for my site?
When designing graphics to be used within a Web page, knowledgeable designers try to balance aesthetics and efficiency. Graphics should be attractive and functional, imposing only a moderate download time of the entire page. Important to consider is that the modems most widely used today, despite their rated capacity, actual receive data at a meager 28.8 bps, and many operate at much lower speeds. This fact, combined with the overall congestion of the Web today, means that data is typically received at about 1.5k per second. Design your graphics keeping this throughput limit in mind and try to limit yourself to roughly 35k-50k of images per page.

In some instances, it works to recycle graphics throughout your site, perhaps changing placements and sizes. The efficiency comes from the fact that there is then only one download-the first one.

18. Should I include links from my web site to other sites?
There are hundreds of things that you can add to make your site more effective and enjoyable. A few of them are:

Database, Admin Section, Surveys, Chat Rooms
Guest books, Mailing Lists
Contests, Games
Request Forms for Brochures, Catalogs, eNewsletters
Live Web Cameras
The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!

19. What other forms of content might enhance my web site?
Yes. Promotion of your Web site is critical to its success. If few people are aware that your site exists, then your audience will be extremely limited. Word-of-mouth advertising is a valuable catalyst for popularity but will not be enough to garnish a return on your investment. Luckily, there are ways to go about promoting your Web site that are relatively simple-and effective.

20. Why does my Web page look different on different computers?
When you place an advertisement in traditional media, your audience always sees exactly the same ad because it is under the control of the magazine, newspaper, or television program publicizing it for you. The Web is different, because we, as users, hold the "joystick," and we "fly" many different types of computers and use different software to view Web pages. The original design of the Web envisioned accommodating all these different platforms; with the massive commercial growth of the Internet, however, the Web is being pushed out of that box. The newest browsers (typically from Netscape and Microsoft) support features that are vastly extending the capabilities of once static Web pages and simple layouts.

These advances make for some tough decisions for those of us who design Web pages, and for our clients. On the one hand, you want as many people as possible to see your Web site, and that requires a least-common-denominator approach, avoiding gimmicks and using formatting that is simple enough not to "break" when viewed on an older Web browser. On the other hand, you are competing with other Web sites for the typically short attention span of your site visitors. If they have an enhanced browser (and statistically, most of them do), then they will have seen some very sophisticated presentations. You don't want your site to look dated to these people. In addition, new technologies are coming online now and they promise a whole new world of possibilities for presenting information.

The problem, obviously, is how to reach both audiences. We use as many browser-independent design methods as possible, and pay special attention to how a site will appear on smaller screens and at lower color resolutions.

21. Should I actively promote my web presence?
Yes. Promotion of your Web site is critical to its success. If few people are aware that your site exists, then your audience will be extremely limited. Word-of-mouth advertising is a valuable catalyst for popularity but will not be enough to garnish a return on your investment. Luckily, there are ways to go about promoting your Web site that are relatively simple-and effective. Click here to here more our Internet Marketing.

22. What should I do prior to submitting my site?
Before you begin submitting your site to the various search engines available, you should make sure to include two important META tags into the HEAD of each of your site's pages. A complete definition of all the META tags that the HTTP protocol understands is beyond the scope of this guide. Simply put, they direct the way in which various entities (servers, browsers, robots) treat the content of the HTML page. Between the <HEAD>...</HEAD> elements of each of your pages, insert the following text:

<META name="description" content="Professional web development company in Reading, Pennsylvania servicing the USA. Offers dynamic, data-driven web sites and comprehensive web hosting and promotion packages.">
< META name="keywords" content="reading pa, iwebminds,reading pennsylvania,site builders,web site design,database administration,search engines,flash animation,professional imaging,ecommerce,etc">

The description is the text that search engines will rely on to describe your site to those who view the engine's index to it. The keywords are used by the search engines to find relevant sites. Use as many keywords as are relevant to those who may be searching for something that your site could offer them.

23. How do I submit my site to search engines and to which sites should I submit?
For your site to be indexed by a search engine, in a timely manner, each one of them has to be told that your site exists and where to find it. Each search engine provides a form that you can access from their main page; documentation is provided in each case.

Currently, some of the most popular search engines are:

(P) Pay listing
(F) Free listing

24. What other methods could I use to promote my site?
Internet Marketing
Get the right kind of traffic. The objective of Search Engine Marketing is to improve the visibility of your web site to people that are searching for information or products that your site might offer. The goal of every Search Engine Marketing Campaign is to drive as much targeted traffic to your web site as possible. And to do this in the most cost-effective manner. Click here to see more on this.

Direct eMarketing Newsletter
Looking for an inexpensive, eye-catching way to keep in touch with your clients?
e-Newsletters, also known as e-mail newsletters, are not only affordable, they are fast – thousands can be sent out at the touch of a button. Click here to see more on this.

25. Who is on the web?
The following information is condensed from the CommerceNet/Nielsen Internet Demographics Survey. The full survey results are available at http://www.nielsenmedia.com.

17% (37 million) of total persons aged 16 and above in the US and Canada have access to the Internet.

Approximately 8% (18 million) of total persons aged 16 and above in the US and Canada have used the Worldwide Web in the past three months.

Internet users average 5 hours and 28 minutes per week on the Internet.

Total Internet usage in the US and Canada is equivalent to the total playback of rented videotapes.

Males represent 66% of Internet users and account for 77% of Internet usage. On average, WWW users are upscale (25% have incomes over $80K), professional (50% are professional or managerial), and educated (64% have at least college degrees).

Approximately 14% (2.5 million) of WWW users have purchased products or services over the Internet.

WWW users are clearly upscale compared with the population as a whole. For example: 25% of WWW users earn a household income of more than $80,000 whereas only 10% of the total US and Canadian population has that level of income; 50% of WWW users consider themselves to be in professional or managerial occupations. In contrast, 27% of the total US and Canadian population categorize themselves as holding such positions; 64% of WWW users have at least college degrees while the US and Canadian national level of college degrees is 29%.

Approximately half of all persons 16+ in the US and Canada who have used the WWW have done so for business purposes. Key business applications are: gathering information, researching competitors, collaborating with others, communicating internally, and providing customer/vendor support.