Brochure web site
For many small businesses a simple website, called a “brochure web site”, can be a great investment at a low cost. A brochure web site is very similar to the printed brochures that many companies create, however the web site is placed online so anyone with Internet access can view it. Typically a brochure web site has the following parts:
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A unique domain name (e.g. you can always reach Google’s web site at http://www.google.com)
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Providing web site hosting that allows people to view your website on the Internet.
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About 3-7 pages talking about the business. Common pages are:
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Introduction – home page.
- About Us – explaining why the business is there.
- Contact Us – list the different ways to contact the company (e.g. phone numbers, postal address)
- Pages describing the product or services the business offers.
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Basic design including a few digital images of the business and it’s branding (e.g. Logo)
Benefits to running a web site
- Online presence – even a simple web site is a lot better than nothing. Many consumers today have a greater trust of businesses with web sites than businesses without a web site.
- Opportunity to reinforce the branding of the business. Being the “Official Website” for a business, gives customers more confidence in the business.
- Provides easy access to common information that is requested by customers such as phone numbers, mailing addresses, and a list of members in the organization.
- Ease of maintenance – due to the web site being only a few pages, maintenance is not as demanding as it would be on larger web sites. Thus allowing lower costs to run the web site over time.
- Once the web site is online, it can be expanded as more pages are needed.
Costs with running a web site
Because the brochure web site is small, the costs can be minimal. The largest cost is the time to develop and create the individual pages for the web site.
- Time to develop the web site – standard rates among professional web site designers range from $30 to $150 an hour (the amount of time is directly related to the amount of work that is required to create the web pages).
- “Web Mastering” or maintenance of the web site – updating old pages with new information and adding new pages. The amount of time needed is directly related to how often the information on the web site needs to change.
- A .COM domain name now costs around $10 a year depending on the provider you choose.
- Renting part of a server to provide the website on the Internet costs about $10 a month. This includes enough storage space for the web page and typically includes email accounts for employees.
Conclusion
A brochure web site is a basic website that is the start of an online presence for a business. There are many benefits to running a website, the most important is that it provides a strong marketing brand to your customers. Even though some businesses spend a fortune on a web site, a very high quality web site can be created for a couple thousand dollars and expanded as the need arises.
About the author
Eric Davis is the founder of Little Stream Software located in scenic Oregon. The goal of Little Stream Software is to produce simple web software and have fun doing it. Little Stream Software specializes in web development and has over two years of web application development and software development experience.
Little Stream Software can be reached at: