What To Expect When You Are "Expecting" A New Website PART II of III

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I received an email this week from a custom builder asking me the steps to build a new website. I get emails like that all the time. Just like any new project, identifying the steps can seem daunting at first. This series of articles is designed to outline the website process in non-technical, common sense, easy to understand language.

The most important concept regarding a website project is to expect the unexpected! Most professionals approach technology with the expectation that everything will go exactly to plan and execute perfectly. Has your computer ever worked perfectly? Ever had trouble getting your DVR to record your favorite TV program? Are you sometimes ready to throw your iPod out the window? The answer to all of these is of course, YES!!! Computers, technology, the Web, never work perfectly. Why? Because while computers may be machines, they were built by people; and when humans are involved, you can count on the unexpected. Expect bumps in the road during your website project. Expect that a button on the website won’t work perfectly or that a photo will look blurry. The key is to communicate those issues with your webmaster and that he/she address them in a timely and satisfactory manner. Be creative. Stay flexible and get everything in writing.

The steps we discussed in the first article are:

1. Define the website project goal
2. Design the homepage
3. Gather the website materials
4. Create the navigational map

Step #5 – Design the interior pages

Once the homepage has been finalized, the webmaster can design the interior pages. The client should receive 1 – 2 interior designs to consider. Again, the client’s responsibility is to review the design, make a decision in a timely manner and give specific feedback to the webmaster. The interior page design should compliment the homepage design. Make sure on the interior pages that the “Contact Us” or “Request Information” is prominent and in the same location on every page.

Step #6 – Set up a live test website

After you have approved the homepage, navigational map and interior page design, the website is ready to go from a design mockup to a real live test website. At this point, it is too late to make any changes to the design or navigation of the website without major delay and additional charges. In other words, speak now or forever hold your peace!

The live test website is up on the Web but the public can’t access it. For the first time, you will be able to click on the navigation buttons and see exactly how the site flows from one page to the next page.

Step #7 -- Load up the content

This step is about entering the text, images and graphics into the live test website. This is a large task and depending on the size of your website can take as much as a couple of weeks. Most images and graphics require extensive prep before the can be uploaded; they need compressing, resizing and/or editing. You may not see any content being loaded for several days and think nothing is happening. On the contrary, your webmaster is hard at work prepping the images before uploading them. Of course you can speed this process up by submitting images in the correct format which is 72 dpi .jpg and/or .tiff. You can also speed up this process by organizing your files on CD into subfolders and by clearly naming each file in the subfolders. File organization will greatly decrease the time to load up the website and reduce misplaced information errors.

Step #8 – Proof, proof, and re-proof

Expect to do approximately three rounds of proofing on the test website. Now that all the content is in, its time to start editing. The most efficient way to proof a website is the print out the pages and mark your changes right on the pages and fax them to the webmaster. On each round of proofing, submit all changes at the same time to the webmaster. Wait for all the changes to made and then start the next round of proofing. When you are proofing, be sure to continually hit your “refresh” button located in the top row of buttons on your web browser to see the latest changes. The refresh button tells your computer to load the most recent page. If you hit the refresh button and still don’t see the changes then likely they haven’t been made yet. Check with the webmaster to get an ETA. This step is about making text only and limited picture changes. Don’t expect to change the navigation or design without major delays and additional costs.

Next month we will go over the remaining few steps. Stay tuned and remember that once the website goes live you will have a fantastic marketing tool!

Meredith Oliver MIRM, CSP is the foremost industry expert on Internet Sales and Marketing. You can tap into her expertise from the convenience of your desktop with workbooks and virtual seminars available at http://www.creatingwow.com/

What To Expect When You Are "Expecting" A New Website Part I of III

Part One of a Three Part Series

Please feel free to comment and add your thoughts! Just scroll to the bottom of the article and click on the "comments" link. I look foward to your ideas!

It feels good to know what to expect. We expect our mail to be delivered at the same time each day. We expect our favorite television program to air at the same time each week. Frequent airline travelers know to expect delays at the airport; we know which airlines serve the best peanuts, who offers complimentary satellite radio and where to find the best airport hamburger. Knowing what to expect gives us confidence. Not knowing what to expect leads to anxiety and frustration.

If you are an experienced home builderreal estate agent, you know what to expect during the building process. While you may be experienced with home building, many of you are new to web marketing. Would you like insider information on what to expect when you build and launch a new website?

I am often asked: What are the steps in a website development project? What are the webmaster’s responsibilities? What are the client responsibilities? What is a reasonable project timeframe? What happens after the website goes live? Over the next three blog postings, we will look at all of these questions and give you the answers you need to be a successful web marketer.

Expect the unexpected
Even though we expect computers to operate perfectly because they are machines, remember computers and websites are built by human beings. During your website design project remember to remain flexible and stay focused on problem solving rather than finger pointing. Get everything in writing before the project starts and be as clear as possible about your expectations of the webmaster. If you follow the steps below, you can be confident that the project will be a great success.

Step #1 – Define the website project goal
The client and the webmaster need to have a clear understanding of the goal of the project. Potential goals include:
· Driving traffic to model homes and open houses
· Driving phone traffic or eLeads to the sales agent
· Branding the organization in the market
· Revamping eLead processing and workflow
· Updating an outdated graphic design
· Creating a user-friendly customer centric website
· Create an affordable first time web presence
· Take the client’s web presence to a higher level of sophistication

It is webmaster’s job to ask the client to define the website project goal. It is the client’s responsibility to thoughtfully answer the question and create buy in within the client’s organization. Once a clear goal is established, the project can really begin.

Step #2 -- Design the homepage

The second step in a website project is to agree on the homepage design. Before the webmaster can begin designing the homepage, he/she will need three critical components from the client including: 1) master .eps version of the company logo, 2) finalized color(s) scheme for the website and 3) photos and/or renderings for the homepage. If you are building a custom designed website, the webmaster should provide three homepage designs to consider. The client’s responsibility is to give timely and specific feedback on the first three designs. Expect to go back and forth on the homepage designs 3 – 5 times. For more revisions, expect to pay extra. The client should approve the design in writing. Once a design is approved in writing, expect delays and extra costs for additional design changes to the homepage.

Step #2b – Gather the website materials

It is the client’s responsibility to gather all of the raw materials needed to build the website and submit them to the webmaster in a timely manner (within 30 days of signing the website development agreement). Raw materials include:
-Copy for each page of the website
-Images for each page of the website including photographs, floor plans, renderings and virtual tours
-Detailed property and community descriptions
-Client’s contact information
-Questions for the online forms

Just like a homebuilder can’t build a home until the concrete block is delivered to the job site, a webmaster cannot build a website without raw materials. Period. End of story. The biggest delay in most website projects is the client’s failure to submit raw materials. While the webmaster is working on the homepage (Step #2) and interior page designs (Step #3), the client should be diligently gathering materials so by Step #3, all materials have been submitted to the webmaster.

Please note that the higher quality of your raw materials, the better the website will look. Don’t expect digital photos taken from an amateur digital camera to look like professional photography! Your webmaster can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear…or something like that!

Step #3 – Create the navigational map

Once the homepage is finalized, the webmaster will create the website navigational map. The navigational map determines how users will “click” their way through the website. It is the webmaster’s responsibility to create the navigational map and give it to the client for review. The client should thoughtfully visualize the navigation path and imagine how the website buttons will work. Also, the client should take this opportunity to make sure every section of the website is on the map. Speak now or forever hold your peace! If a section is missing from the navigational map, it won’t be in the website. Think of the navigational map as the blueprint of the website. It the blueprint doesn’t show a third bedroom, the third bedroom does not exist. The client should approve the navigational map in writing. Changes to the navigational map after approval will result in additional fees and time delays.

Tune in next month as we tackle the next steps towards a FANTASTIC website project delivered on time and on budget!