Websites/Website Checklist

This questionnaire is designed to enhance communications between Knock-Out Web Designs and my clients. Please print, and have it handy when you discuss your project on the phone with Knock-Out Web Designs. After this form is filled out I can talk on the phone, or in person so please make a photocopy for your records, and email or mail a signed copy to me. This form provides a written memorandum of my mutually-agreed plan.
1. Purpose List importance by putting a number from 1 - 10, 1 being the highest and 10 the least. Leave those blank which do not interest you at all.
__ To gain a favorable impression of the company or organization. __ To develop a qualified list of prospects __ To sell products directly taking credit card information over the Internet __ To encourage potential customers to contact us by phone or mail to consummate a sale. __ To make available product information and price lists to distributors. __ To make available product information and price lists to customers. __ To strengthen brand identification. __ Other ______________________________________________________
2. Site Organization Please label pages you desire and cross out the rest. Total number of pages decided upon ________________
3. Domain and Sub-Domain Names Domain Name You may check the availability of your domain name at GoDaddy.com. Domain name ____________________________ ___Desired ___Already Registered (this does not always insure that the domain will be available or even at the desired price) Sub-Domain Name is the sub section of the site that you wish to have a different name other than a folder name. Example if you have a domain name of "mysite.com" and you wish to have a sub-domain name for the member login section the sub-domain would be "members.mysite.com". _______________________ Linked to ___________________ _______________________ Linked to ___________________ _______________________ Linked to ___________________ _______________________ Linked to ___________________
4. Masthead Graphic It is very helpful if you will include a copy of your company's letterhead, brochures, catalog, etc. so I can see how you present your company image. __ Company Logo incorporated in the masthead graphic? If so, please enclose a color copy. __ Photo or drawing of product(s)? __ Typeface preference __________________________________________ __ Preferred colors in palette _______________________________________ __ Other ideas _________________________________________________________
5. Color and Accents For the most part, I recommend font that is readable and available on most computers without having to download. Colors should be contrasting and not all the same color tone. *Your preference:* May I include a link at the bottom of the welcome page which reads "Designed by Knock-Out Web Designs"? (You are under no obligation to say yes.) ___Yes ___No
6. Navigation System The navigation system of all my Standard Website Packages includes: Links from the front page and sectional pages to every page in the system to enable Web search engines to "spider" and index content on every page. Top Menus with text links really should not consist of more than about 4 - 10 links. Keep wording to a minimal to keep the menu from looking cluttered. Brief word or two indicating each page -- or, in larger sites -- each section of the website. This appears at the bottom of every page. In some sites I put this both top and bottom. You are limited to a maximum of about eight (8) selections on this image map. Left-Side or Right-Side Menus with text links are especially useful on larger sites. Included in sites of 6 pages or more. They can allow more detail than an 8-item bottom image map, and can enable visitors to see from any page how to get to any other. These may be white or light-colored over a dark left-side color or pattern, or black or dark over a light left-side color or pattern. Optional Systems. Left-Side "Buttons" can be used, but I do not recommend them, since they are more expensive and time consuming to maintain when a change or addition is made to the system. Also, it takes significantly longer to load many buttons than an image map of the same area (Extra charge) Frames System where, typically, a scrolling menu remains on the left side to provide navigation. I do not recommend frames in practically any situation, since they are a design disaster. They do not always print out, cannot be bookmarked easily, and often make the page design look "tacky" with their ugly gray scroll bars. I see them as the amateur's way to look cool. In a very few cases, they are useful: (1) to display large databases of information, (2) purposely hide URLs of content pages, (3) send visitors to other sites while making it easy for them to come back. (Extra charge) Site Maps is useful on larger sites of 20+ pages to help visitors quickly find what they're looking for. (Extra charge)
7. Basic Page Elements These are the important items which appear on nearly every webpage on your site (except the "home" page). Page titles which show at top of Web browser Top-of-page graphic based on the design of the masthead graphic Page Title Heading Font Style: ________________ (recommend Arial Bold) Text. Body Font Style: ___________________ (recommend Times New Roman) Standard company ID near bottom of page E-mail response link to the following e-mail address: _________________________ Copyright and trademark information in small print at the bottom of every page. What registered trademarks, trademarks, and service marks does your company want to indicate here? Do you have any trademarks or service marks? If so, please list them here and indicate which are registered trademarks.
8. Photos, Graphics, Animations, and Video Our contract includes a statement that you own the copyright to, or have permission from the copyright owner to use any photos or graphics you send us. Clipart tends to look a bit tacky on websites. I recommend photos. Photos you supply either by sending the photos themselves for us to scan and return, or by sending the digitized images on a diskette. Icons can be used to signify different types of pages, products or other content sections. Stock photos obtained from ClipArt.com and other stock photo sites (Please write down the photo number and inform us of your choices, and which page each photo goes on. I can help you select the photos, but I will bill you for time at my hourly rate.) . For an extra charge, I can equip your web pages with: Animated GIF images. Flash Animations Video clips
9. Response Forms What is the purpose of your response form? __ Guestbook for visitors to record comments __ Request for information __ Survey of customer preferences Note: I do charge extra to set up the ordering system.
10. Web Hosting Service I recommend to my clients web hosting services tailored to their specific needs. I've worked with dozens of hosting services -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. I usually do not recommend hosting on your local dial-up ISP, since they too often are not well-prepared to meet specialized business site hosting needs. Their main business is usually dial-up access, and hosting is only a sideline for them. I do require FTP access, and strongly recommend up to date PHP scripting and MySQL database access. Hosting is available with all these requirements with a monthly fee that can be paid out yearly. __Knock-out Web Designs Hosting @ $3.44 a month for 1 year, or Web Hosting Service _____________________________________ Phone: _____________________________ E-mail for support or help ______________________________
11. Registering and Advertising Your Website Consider: Advertising your Website to Web search engines that index the Web Giving customers a good reason to come by offering them something Finding industry-wide linking pages and negotiating reciprocal links to and from their web pages. Purchasing Web advertising Becoming active in several of the thousands of Internet news groups and mailing lists Developing a "signature" mini-ad attached to all your e-mail messages Making your website part of one or more of the many "malls." Including your e-mail and Web addresses on all your company's print literature, stationery, and display advertising E-mail newsletters Information about number of visitors to your website can usually be obtained from your Internet Service Provider or Google Analytics. Knock-Out Webdesigns can include page counters but they are not standard. Available upon request. I submit your information to Web search engines to "register" your website after final payment is received. Before doing this I work with you to get 50 to 100 keywords and a carefully constructed 25-word sentence contain the most important keywords.
12. Maintenance Target Date____________________ Package prices include minor updating over the first six months of the contract. This covers minor price changes, product changes, etc. It does not include major changes, such as changing newsletter content (which essentially involves constructing a new webpage), which is billed at my hourly rate. If your site contains a database of products or other information please refer to the Database Driven Website Worksheet. Target Date for final payment to be made and your Web Site to be advertised: _____________ On behalf of my organization I approve the above plan which I have developed with Knock-Out Web Designs to construct a website, and I authorize Knock-Out Web Designs to use this Website Planning Worksheet as the basis of the project.