Types of Sites
Of course these are general categories. Large business sites might have aspects of all of these. One of your first decisions will be deciding what kind of site you want to begin with.
Brochure Website. These are used much like a printed brochure for your business. They provide a brief explanation of your products or services and a small amount of information you want to share with your prospects and customers. Typically they contain 7-12 pages of information.
Business Website. These are similar to brochure websites. They are usually larger with 20 or more pages organized into sections. You might include a directory of employees or even special information for employees or for a segment of customers. Some sections might be password protected for security.
Content Management Website. This type of website is contains a large amount of information usually organized into multiple sections and sub-sections. Think of a newspaper online and you will get an idea of how this works. Specialized software is used to organize and link articles on these sites. Althought technical expertise is needed to setup and configure these sites, once they are created most users can maintain them with little ongoing support.
Portfolio Website. Artists, photographers, musicians, filmmakers and other create professionals often create portfolio sites to feature their work. They are usually more interested in display of their creations than in writing about their work. These are often the most visually interesting and leading edge sites on the web.
E-Commerce Website. Millions of products and services are available on the web. "Shopping Cart" software - either custom designed or packaged software - is used to create a catalog of products and process orders. Custom sites can be extremely costly however packaged shopping cart software, properly configured and organized can be just as effective for a fraction of the cost.
