Thinking About Taking Your Business to the Internet? Michael Tims Shares His Own Experience.
By Michael A. Tims
When I finally put up my own web storefront, I learned some valuable lessons. I knew my way around a PC and figured it would just take a few evenings to get it up and running. Wrong! But even though it did take longer than expected, I still feel that if a person perseveres, he can put up a web site that will be just as nice, and offer just as much as the sites put up by experienced webmasters.
Over the years, I discovered that the simpler the web site, the faster it will load and thus not waste viewers time (especially dial-up viewers). I wanted a nice-looking site to showcase all my custom, reprintable directories and books on using a PC to earn income. I wanted to be able to offer viewers a shopping cart system and secure credit card sales on the Net. I wanted to get a merchant's credit card account to offer credit card sales to my customers.
The first thing a person needs to decide is whether to rent web space from a web hosting service or from someone else that sells or sublets web space. I could have gone the easier route and rented web space from some other entrepreneur, but I wouldn't have had my own domain name. Instead, I'd have had to contend with a web address such as:
www.sitesforrent.com/~members/subdirectory 497/myname.htm
Not for me. If I was going to put the time and money into a storefront, I wanted my own domain name, so I decided on a web hosting service that would register the domain name of MY choice--www.matcopublishing.com.
By having my own domain name, web surfers would only need to type the URL and be whisked away to my web site. I did, however, check with a domain registration site to make sure my name had not already been registered. I was amazed at how many domain names had the word MATCO in them. I originally got it from my initials (MAT) and CO for "company." I've been using this company name since 1956 and couldn't believe my eyes, when I saw dozens of MATCOs. But I was lucky--matcopublishing was not being used.
I could have registered the name at that time but the web host I had chosen advertised that they registered domain names free. I thought that meant no cost to me. What they met was they would file the paperwork. I didn't know at the time, but most hosting services will register domain names free, but it still costs $70 for two years to register, no matter who files the paperwork. My web service just saved me from filling out one form. The cost was still $70.
Next I had to decide on a web hosting service, so I made a search on the web itself. I use the Alta Vista search engine a lot, so I went to their search site and entered "web hosting services." I got thousands of "hits" for web hosting services costing $7 per month up to hundreds of dollars per month. Some even charged an additional percentage of your gross sales per month. Too much.
To reduce the number of hits and narrow the search down to a price range I had in mind, I entered the key words "cheap web hosting." That was more like it. There were about a dozen web hosting services with monthly fees from $7 to about $19.95.
I clicked onto each of the sites of these web hosters to see what features they offered and after weighing them, I finally decided on a company that charged $12 per month for a 50 Mb site and only $30 for a one-time setup fee. Some companies charged two or three times this for setup and much more per month.
I wasn't even sure that everything I wanted to accomplish could be done on this particular web host because I really didn't know everything that I'd need. I was just hoping for the best. Anyway, I signed up online, with my domain name request and received an email back that the form was received and it would take two days to get my site ready and domain name registered.
Sure enough, two days later, I typed in my URL (www.matcopublishing.com) and there it was--an announcement that this was the site of Matco Publishing. I didn't even have one page ready for the site yet, but it was a proud moment nevertheless.
Michael A. Tims is a full-time high school math teacher who has run a mail order business as a sideline for more than 20 years. Being a self-taught computer NUT, one of his passions has been to find unique ways to use a PC to enhance or enable a small business venture.
Visit his web site at www.matcopublishing.com to read this and other articles. You may also write for a current catalog.
Matco Publishing P.O. Box 509 Roseville, MI 48066-0509
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