A website is an integral part of an advertising campaign. *** It's affordable, updatable, and reaches a vast and varied audience. *** It's a wired world, are you ready?

Why do I need a website?

Having a website can be an integral part of an advertising campaign for the same approximate cost of producing brochures, and reaches a much larger audience. You can change and update a website at will without having to contact all of your customers. You can have an online brochure, which basically provides information about your business and a way to contact you. Or, you could go for a more interactive site that solicits business from new customers using the internet.

Can I afford this?

The cost of creating a website is about the same as that of producing a brochure. Plus, it doesn't matter if you're marketing to 10 or 10,000 customers, the website's cost is the same. Site creation is the initial investment and site hosting, usually paid monthly, is very reasonable.

But I don't know anything about computers.

You don't have to know how a car works to operate it, and the same goes for a website. You do your research, you make a choice, and you reap the benefits of an online presence!

I'm a small business, I don't need a site.

Even better reason to have a website! They are cost efficient and reach anyone with Internet access. A website lends legitimacy to a small business, the idea being that you're big enough to have a website, you must be a good business. More than half of all small businesses in America now have a website - does your competition?

So I've decided I need a website, what steps do I need to take now?

You'll need a domain name, an actual website, and a place to host the finished site. You can purchase the domain name yourself by finding one of the ICANN-licensed companies on the internet, however, a good web hosting company should be able to get that for you at no additional cost. UpFront Technology includes the first year free when you have us design your site. We also provide secure hosting for a low cost. Website design is the largest chunk of your investment; if you have questions that are not answered on our website, please contact us.

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What is involved in setting up a site?

The company should take into consideration your goals - why are you setting up a website? Who are you trying to attract to this website? The company should get specific information that you want on your site, and submit a draft of the site for approval before making that the final version. The company should use professional web design software (this does not include FrontPage!) and the designers should know their stuff and not have to rely upon the fancy software to create your pages.

How long does it take?

It depends upon the size and complexity of your site. A very basic, three-page site might take only a week, while a larger, complex site could take several weeks.

How often does a site need updated?

Typically there will be a fee associated with updates to the site. Check out the cost and, if based on time, what increments the company rounds up to (to the minute, to the hour, etc.). UpFront Technology charges by the hour and rounds off to the nearest fifteen minute increment when doing updates for your site. A simple correction, of course, does not incur a fee.

What steps will the company take to optimize your site?

Optimizing means making your site quick to load, making it available to search engines (like Google and Yahoo!), and making it easy for web surfers and your customers to find and use.

Does host offer technical support?

If so, is it by phone or email? How long does it take to get back with you? UpFront will respond via email (for simple questions) or via phone within 24 hours.

Will the designers register your domain name?

And if so, do they mark up the cost to you, the customer? UpFront uses only reputable sources to purchase domain names, and we charge you exactly what we were charged. For new clients, we will give you the first year free when you select UpFront Technology to design your website. Domain names are essentially rented, and must be paid for on an annual basis.

Will the hosting company let you run custom CGI scripts, Server Side Includes, FrontPage extensions, RealAudio, Telnet/SSh, PHP, MySQL, etc.?

Make sure that you have the option to run dynamic content on your hosting companies servers. Many of today's web pages include dynamic pages that make pages much more interesting and interactive. Most hosting companies will not host FrontPage extensions. UpFront Technology has the capabilities to host CGI, SSIs, sound, code, and database needs.

Do you need web hit statistics service?

This lets you know who visits your site, and details about that visit. It's a valuable tool to gauge the effectiveness of your website. Make absolutely sure there is some way to measure site traffic, entry and exit pages. UpFront can do all that for you.

So I'm an informed customer, now why should I go with UFT?

We offer personal, one-on-one interaction, and there's no red tape to doing business with our clients. We're dedicated to this job, it's not something we do “on the side” like so many other web design professionals. We actually think this is fun!

We'll always be “up front” with you about what we do, how we go about it, and what we can offer our customers. UpFront Technology uses the latest and greatest software and hardware, but we can still use Notepad to code. We aren't reliant upon our cool resources.

We are discriminatory - we're not going to let just anyone host a site with us. No porn, no spam generators, no advertising.

Customer satisfaction. Awesome value. We grow with you. Contact us today at (614) 579-6829 or email us at info@upfronttechnology.com