What?
   What is a domain name?
   What is hosting?
   Can you help us update our brochures to look like our website?
   What should I do BEFORE I build a website?
   What happens after the site is up? Who will update it?
   What about search engines?
   What other services should I consider that would increase the
      effectiveness of my site?
   What is e-commerce?


Why?
   Why should I have a website?
   Why etellinet?

How?
   How long will it take to create my website?
   How can the Internet help my business?

How Much?
   How much will a website cost?
   What other costs do I need to be aware of?

Why should I have a website?
In recent years computers in homes and businesses has become commonplace. In addition, the cost of computers and internet connectivity has decreased. As a result, more and more people are using the internet on a daily basis for information and shopping. If your business isn't online, you may not be reaching many potential clients or worse yet, losing existing clients.

Other reasons:

• Your competition probably already has one - don't give them the competitive advantage!
• It's an inexpensive way to promote our company's good & services on a global scale ...and you can do so creatively with pictures, sound & even video!
• To establish a more efficient way to communicate with your clients and network effectively
• To increase operational efficiencies & save costs
• To build credibility & increase awareness of your brand
• To heighten public interest in your company & reach the media for additional PR
• To reach a highly educated, prosperous demographic market of WWW users
• need more reasons? Contact us today!

Benefits of a website include:

• Easily accessible product and/or service listings
• Helping your clients "find" you
• Increasing operational efficiencies, freeing up valuable company resources by providing information online as opposed to in person or over the telephone
• Help further build a company brand, build credibility, and much much more!

Regardless of the type of business, a professional web consultant can offer a complete analysis of your business and suggestions for a website that will support your overall business strategy.
[Top]

How long will it take to create my website?
The length of time it will take to have your website complete depends on several factors. Are you available for consultation and to provide feedback on progress throughout the process? Will the site include multimedia components such as flash animations or streaming video? Will the site be highly visual and have many images and/or graphics? Does your company have visual and text information available in digital format for use on the site?

Typically the most time-consuming part of the entire process is consulting and design. Once your objectives for the site and the structure and visual design have been established, development moves fairly quickly. On average, a medium sized site ( 10 - 20 pages ) will be fully completed from concept to live in approximately 4 - 6 weeks.
[Top]

How much will a website cost?
The cost of a website is dependent on 3 major factors. Size, usually measured by number of pages, Content, ranging from plain text all the way to highly graphic multimedia animations, and Design measured by the amount of time it takes to establish a design that satisfies the client.

As with most service industries, in the world of internet development there are companies offering sites as low as $300 and as high as $500,000.

Generally speaking, at the low-end you will find a "cookie-cutter" approach to building sites. These companies offer an extremely inexpensive way of building a website by using "templates" and filling in the blanks with your company logo and information. The Pros: fast, cheap. The Cons: inflexible design, highly dependent on the web company's templates and often their hosting service, lack of personal attention, sales rather than client focused approach and your site often needs to be re-designed soon afterward.

On the mid - high end you will find companies that offer a more client-focused approach to building sites that are custom and highly suited to your specific business needs. Pros: client-focused, flexible, custom solutions specific to your business, little or no dependence, often these companies offer more than just "building a website" such as advertising support, long-term approach to building a good structure and getting better long-term value for your investment. Cons: more expensive in the short-term, requires more of your time/input. (etellinet adopts a client-focused approach to website design. We believe a well-designed site should be an accurate reflection of your company's goals & vision... your return on investment will more than justify the initial costs of building the site!)

Etellinet offers mid-high end solutions. The types of websites and options are so large that it is next to impossible to estimate the cost of a custom site without knowing your specific details, however we do offer these guidelines to help you. A medium sized site ( 10 - 20 pages ) with graphics, extensive text content and a submittable email form will cost approximately $5,000 - $7,000. Lots of graphics, multimedia or advanced programming may increase the costs.

A good rule of thumb is to consider that each part of a site must go through consulting, design, development, testing, revisions, re-testing and live setup. Based on this, a basic page on a site will end up costing anywhere from $200 - $500. Multiply that by the number of pages in your site and you'll have a rough estimate that should be well beyond the actual cost so there will be no surprises. Projects can be estimated on a "complete project" basis or "by hours" basis. Hourly rates vary for programming, design, multimedia etc. Hourly rates range from $75 - $200 per hour.

Don't forget - to ensure maximum return on your investment, each page has to go through a series of stages. From consulting, to design/development, revisions and testing -- we work with you to make sure your needs are met every step of the way which allows us to fairly and accurately estimate the cost of your site early on in the consulting and design stages. A win-win relationship with No surprises.
[Top]

What other costs do I need to be aware of?
The following are additional costs OR "possible" additional costs which should be considered:

Domain Registration: The registration of a web address (example: www.yourbusinessname.com) ranges from $20 - $70 per domain per year depending on the certified registrar being used. .com names registered with Verisign (previously Network Solutions) cost $35U.S. per name per year. Etellinet recommends/uses Go Daddy for a significant saving on .com domains (Go Daddy cost: $8.95US) .ca names are registered with CIRA (Canadian Internet Registry Authority) through an authorized registration provider and cost $30 - $40CDN per name per year.

Hosting: Varies according to hosting company and package chosen. Etellinet can recommend a hosting company for you (Korax Inc or World Wide Online), or you can choose your own. Costs are dependent on choice of hosting solution and vary between $20 - $3000 per month, with setup fees ranging from $0 - $2000. Packages range from basic hosting (50 - 100 MB of server space) to dedicated server solutions.

Payment Processing: To be considered if you wish to accepts payments for products or services online. $100 - $300 per month + setup fees + transaction fees (approx. $1.00 per transaction) + credit card company (visa, m/c, amex) service fees. (Costs depend on Certification Authority used, features needed and quantity of transactions being processed)

Online Payment Processing can be handled in 2 ways:

Manual: Online sales information is sent via email to the merchant who manually processes the credit card offline.

OR Automatic: Credit cards are authorized in real-time online and the consumer receives confirmation or rejection within 20-60 seconds. In order to accept automatic online payments, your business must
1) Choose a certification authority (eg. Verisign). This company can provide a digital certificate to authenticate your site as secure. A digital certificate is optional but recommended.
2) Choose a Processing Company (eg. Internet Secure). This company will provide your site with all the technical details necessary for actually processing the credit cards online in real-time with credit card companies and financial institutions.
3) Get a Merchant Account. To accept credit cards online you must have an Internet Merchant Account with a financial institution (Required by the processing companies).

For more information visit:
www.verisign.com, www.royalbank.com, www.cibc.com, www.internetsecure.com, www.cybercash.com

Additional Considerations: Tax calculations, Shipping, Internal Costs such as inventory, packaging, site updates etc. Additional development costs may be incurred.

Marketing: online advertising, directory submissions, supporting print materials, search engines etc. Options are many, therefore costs vary and can range from $300 - $100,000.

Future Maintenance & Updates to Website: Updates can be set up to suit your company's needs either on a "per-update" price or a monthly fee. Costs dependent upon types and quantity of changes required.
[Top]

What is a domain name?
In the simplest terms, a domain is simply the address of your website on the internet. For example: www.etellinet.com is the domain name which represents our company website on the Internet. Its a bit like having your own piece of real estate on the World Wide Web!
[Top]

What is hosting?
To be visible on the Internet (assuming you have web pages ready and a properly set up domain name), your web pages must be placed on a web server. Basically this is just a special computer managed by a third party (or yourself) that makes your pages accessible to everyone on the Internet. We call this a "host" and the company that manages it is "hosting" your website when you "rent" space from them to put your web pages online.
[Top]

Can you help us update our brochures to look like our website?
Absolutely! Etellinet provides full-service with respect to communicating your business information. We provide many of our web clients with advertising design services on a regular basis. Visit our solutions pages to find out more about our full range of services and our results pages to view a sampling of our portfolio.
[Top]

What happens after the site is up? Who will update it? Can we?
To ensure the future success of your site, it is critical to keep information fresh and up-to-date. If you and your staff have technical knowledge of web development and some simple web development tools, you can update the site on your own. If however you do not, Etellinet can do the updates for you. Rates will be discussed and agreed upon prior to updates being completed. Per-Change or Monthly update costs can be discussed and planned to best suit your business' needs and budget.

Another option would be to have Etellinet build a user-friendly interface to your site which will allow your internal staff to make updates directly OR Etellinet can provide basic technical training to designated staff and arrange hand-over of site management to your business (In both cases, additional consulting/development/software costs will apply).
[Top]

What about search engines?
Etellinet provides submission to the top 4 Search Engines with no ranking guarantees free of charge upon request. Consulting & submissions for higher ranking requires additional programming and monitoring and is offered at a rate of $250/hour (average annual cost:$3,000).

How can the Internet help my business?
Think of the Internet as a way to communicate with your customers. By placing your company on the internet you're opening the door to a no-nonsense convenient way to present your company's goods and services. Your information is readily available to you and your clients 24/7 at the simple "click of a mouse".

This doorway to your business should complement your exising business strategy. "In 2003, ecommerce sales for Canada are projected to be $53.9 billion". Shouldn't your company be there? (Source: Business 2.0 - July 1999 - quoted in US dollars)
[Top]

What is e-commerce?
Today, E-commerce is likely one of the most mis-understood concepts of our time. Ask and you will receive answers as simple as "selling online" to answers so complicated even we can't repeat them. So what is e-commerce really? And what can it do for you?

Etellinet defines e-commerce as "the use of technology to promote and increase the likliehood of business taking place between two parties". This could mean having an online shopping cart to sell products through your website OR a custom application helping your staff work more efficiently and hence providing better customer service OR even a solution as simple as ensuring your online prescence is creating an experience for the customer which encourages them to do business with your company. The bottom line is that the actual implementation of an e-commerce solution is unique to each business.

Unique is where etellinet excels! We are not a "cookie-cutter" company. Our solutions are truly custom and created as a team effort combining our technology and business expertise with the client's knowledge of their business. Let us show you how the right mix of technology and promotion will bring your business to new heights. Request a Proposal online today!
[Top]

Why etellinet?
Etellinet has the passion, skill and experience to build a site which works for you. Our clients are extremely loyal. They know that when it comes to getting the job done right, we constantly push the limits to ensure their expectations are not only met, but exceeded. (what our clients have to say...)

Etellinet believes that an informative and engaging web site determines how well you are able to sell your products and services online and/or offline. We strive to find the perfect balance between practical and creative to ensure that your experience with us is both pleasurable and profitable.

We believe it is possible to think 'outside the box' in order to achieve solid results designed to simplify your life. We call it 'in the box' thinking.... Proven results which push the boundaries of traditional thinking... Just ask our clients!
[Top]

What should I do BEFORE I build a website?
Proper preparation beforehand will ensure that your site reflects and enhances your company's business strategy. Think about how you want your site to meet your goals and objectives.

A properly designed site shouldn't be a dumping ground for your company's printed materials. There's a way to work in the new medium -- a way to engage the customers to give them a unique online experience which will have them coming back for more.

Use our online Request for Proposal form to help you get started and let etellinet show you how to create a phenomenal online experience for your customers!

What other services should I consider that would increase the effectiveness of my site?
Etellinet offers a wide range of services to our web clients designed to enhance your e-presence. We can help you redesign your company brochure to reflect the look of your new site. Advertising materials (both online & offline) can be created to help increase the flow of traffic to your site.

Additional services offered by Etellinet include consultation & visual design of logos, marketing communications materials (print & digital) and much more!

For more information on services provided by Etellinet, please visit our solutions page -- then -- key in to our results section to sample our online portfolio!