Why You Should Have A Website?

Lord Krishna had thousands of Gopis who loved him, and it is said that he could be with all of them at the same time in different places. Now the Internet gives you the same power to communicate with anyone anywhere in the world - at the same time. A website is a powerful medium of communication. We begin a series of articles on why you should have a website and how you should go about developing one.

To understand the benefits of a website, let us start by answering three basic questions: who, why and when?

Well, almost everyone who is conducting any business and hopes to continue with the same in and beyond the year 2000 and achieve a successful growth needs a website. In the near future, a website will become as essential as a telephone is today. Many of you may be in business for over 25 to 30 years or more -- and may feel that you have been doing well over so many years without a website. So, what is the need for it now?

I have met many entrepreneurs and executives who are very sure that they don't need a website! The reasons vary from person to person, but generally the logic (or rather, the absence of logic) behind this is the same. "We don't sell anything in the international market, so what's the point in spending money on a website?"

A very common misconception is that a website is necessary only for those who are in international business. Another parallel misconception with many involved in international business is expecting business to flow in with their website hosted.

When no such thing happens, frustrations lead the website to its natural death. Also, these sites are hardly updated. Some sites have messages like: "Last updated: December 1996".

To get over such misconceptions and future frustrations, let us go to the next question: why?

There can be various reasons why you should set up a website. Here are some of the prominent ones.

The Internet will soon become the most important medium of communication, and the website your communication center. There are three main advantages of using the website as your communication center.

• It is very fast. Any potential customer looking for information about your company, products, prices can get it instantly from your website. Without having to write or call for information.

• It doesn't cost you a lot. Once you put all the relevant information on the website, it doesn't cost you anything extra for every visitor who visits the site and views the information. Which is not the case with printed brochures and catalogs. It costs quite a lot to print and distribute printed brochures and catalogs. Compare the cost of printing and mailing a four-page color brochure to ten thousand addresses over a period of one year, with the cost of having those four pages on the website for one year and you will see the difference.

• It can be always up to date. If you update the website regularly, the visitors can always get the latest information. This is very important if your product range and prices are frequently changing. With a printed brochure, catalog and price list, every change calls for a complete reprint. The cost of reprinting and mailing everything again can be quite substantial. On the website, you can update and upload the files in a matter of minutes at a very nominal cost. You can do it as many times as you need.

Unique and cheaper e-mail

E-mail on the website works out much cheaper to operate. Especially if you need many e-mail IDs. Getting extra e-mail accounts from your Internet service provider (ISP) is much costlier. Extra e-mail IDs on the website will either be free or will cost a very nominal amount as set-up fee.

Moreover, the advantage with a website e-mail is that all the IDs share the available server space and chances of jammed mailboxes are much less. Also, per Mega Byte (MB), cost of mailbox memory on the site is much less compared to that charged by the ISPs.

So, if you need any number of e-mail IDs and use e-mail extensively for your business, setting up a website is very economical even on just this one count. An added advantage is that you get the e-mail IDs such as info@yourcompany.com rather than having to work with names like yourcompany@vsnl.com which will have to change every time you change the ISP. It was OK when VSNL was the only ISP available, but now with new ISPs coming with more and more attractive packages, it's better to have your own permanent e-mail IDs.

If you have branches in other cities and need to exchange data through large files, it becomes quite difficult to attach large files to e-mails. You may have to exchange floppy disks through courier services between the branches and the head office. It's quite a hassle. Your website can give you a more convenient way to exchange data through FTP access. (FTP stands for file transfer protocol.)

You can reserve a part of your website exclusively for FTP and use it to exchange data files on the website. This area can be password protected, so general visitors to the site have no access to this data.

If you are dealing with overseas principals, they will expect you to have a website. It has become one of the basic requirements of business all over the world. When you contact any new overseas manufacturers for an agency or dealership, having your own website can be an added advantage.

This can also be a valid reason for setting up a website, and why not? Didn't you buy a Cielo when your neighbor got one?

A website does help in improving your image. So even if you think that all the reasons mentioned earlier are not important enough for you - this one can probably get you thinking about setting up a website!

The next question that needs to be answered is: when?

If you think you need a website, the answer to "When?" is "NOW!" because tomorrow, you may not get the domain name you want.

Tens of thousands of domain names are being registered everyday and common names are far to find. Think about a name for your website, and chances are, it will not be available. Single letter names, all 26 of them are already taken. Two letter names, all 676 of them will not be available. Don't be surprised if none of the three letter names are available! A few of the four letter names will still be available but many of them will be for sale for $2000 and more. Consider yourself very fortunate if the name you want is still available. The only consolation is that you can choose a name up to 22 characters long. The good news is that most of the 22 character names are still available!

In the coming articles, we shall see the practical aspects of registering a domain name for the website and building your presence on the Internet.