| BROCHURE WEBSITE | | | | A portal as the name implies, is a website that aims |
| This is the most common type of website and is | | | | to provide everything and be your point of entry to |
| perhaps the easiest to set up for your business. | | | | the Internet. Personally this is not my favourite type |
| Imagine if you were to "translate" your brochure to | | | | of website because I don't believe one can be all |
| the Web. That's what you'd have here. This type of | | | | things to all men successfully, but if you think you |
| website is fairly static and can be changed or | | | | can take on Yahoo and MSN, go right ahead. :-) |
| updated once or twice per year. Sample pages | | | | Maybe what you can do is become the portal for |
| include: | | | | your niche market. That would work great. For |
| - Home | | | | example, if you sell nuts and bolts, you can become |
| - About us | | | | the nuts and bolts portal. |
| - Products | | | | Some believe that international portals like the ones |
| - Services | | | | previously mentioned are going to lose market share |
| - Contact us | | | | to regional local portals. The belief is that if I'm |
| The beauty about this type of website is that it | | | | searching for a hairdresser, I don't want to get links |
| requires little maintenance yet gives you a | | | | from an international portal to some great salon in |
| professional presence on the Web, and of course the | | | | Paris. I want to know who's the best gardener in my |
| respect you deserve. Also, the price is usually a lot | | | | little town. In this case, this seems very true and |
| lower but that doesn't mean you should sacrifice | | | | highly relevant, especially if you're based in that town |
| your company objectives for what appears to be | | | | because you would even be able to post first-hand |
| less expensive. | | | | reviews. |
| E-BUSINESS WEBSITE | | | | Skeptics though, say that the big boys know this and |
| An e-business website is one that includes all of the | | | | are going to start setting up local branches of their |
| above but in addition it does something for you. | | | | operations. This, they say, is why you see some of |
| Ideally, it should automate some process that you | | | | them buying up country domains and extensions. |
| would otherwise have to do manually. | | | | However, a wise man once said, "The competition will |
| This doesn't have to be a complex process. It could | | | | do what the competition will do." So go brave if you |
| be something as simple as a Mailing List manager, or | | | | have an idea that would make the big fish look small! |
| an online Order Form that processes payment offline, | | | | It's better to try and fail than fail to try. OK, enough |
| or a system to provide after-sales support. | | | | cliches. |
| E-COMMERCE WEBSITE | | | | SEARCH ENGINE |
| An e-commerce website includes all of the above | | | | Why are Google's shares the highest? Possibly |
| plus it would also have the ability to accept credit | | | | because everyone needs to search. Everyone goes |
| card or other types of payment online in real time. | | | | to the Internet for information of some sort. |
| To get this, you would need a merchant account, a | | | | Search engines, though are branching out into other |
| security certificate which is commonly referred to in | | | | areas, from video delivery to telephony. They would |
| the industry as an SSL certificate, and depending on | | | | have their reasons but it's interesting that even while |
| how many items you're selling, a shopping cart. | | | | they do that, some are maintaining their search |
| E-commerce websites are expensive for international | | | | focus. Perhaps this is because search would remain |
| merchants but very affordable for US-based | | | | the number one activity of people online. |
| merchants. Why this disparity? The argument is that | | | | These are the most common types of websites you |
| there are better anti-fraud laws in the US that can | | | | will see around the web and before getting a |
| deal with cybercrime. In fact merchants from some | | | | website, you may want to perhaps know which |
| countries are not allowed to buy SSL certificates at | | | | would work best at helping you to achieve your |
| all. | | | | company objectives. |
| PORTAL | | | | |