I am keen to have my own web site and link to email for clients to contact me. Does anyone know a reputable, reliable company who could assist me in achieving this years goal!

I have a reccomendation for you, these people are the best. They may not be the cheapest but they are young and dynamic and first class. I am not affiliated with these people but we are having two websites built with them for our music sites. Contact name is Adie and the phone number is 01226 720 072 or take a look at their website www.deviatedesign.co.uk

Hope this helps

Lynden

Hi Margaret,

Finding the right people to develop your website is a really important part of developing your business. There are a lot of people and companies in the web industry which can make it a bit of a mine field when looking for the perfect solution.

I work as a web developer in London (just moved down from Manchester) so i will be more than happy to speak with you about your thoughts on the direction of your company.

As i say, there are a lot of people and companies in the web industry so its good to be clued up about the real important aspects of having someone develop the site on your behalf. There will always be those companies out there who can offer you a £500 website and promise the world, which is one of the reasons i've made it a huge goal of mine to help educate people on what they need to be looking out for and the kinds of questions they need to be asking.

First off, a couple of things to be aware of and to listen out for when talking to a web company or individual. Are they interested in the direction you want to take your business? Are they talking a lot about 'interactivity','the latest technologies' and using a lot of buzz words that mean absolutely nothing too you, and do they come across as the kind of company who want to develop a realtionship with you and your business or are they looking for a hit-and-run type of agreement.

It's always worth remembering that a website is a part of your business. A lot of people treat a site like an addition that might be cool, however the real truth is that your website must be a key part of your business plan and when developed correctly, will be a key part of your revenue making process.

Here's a few questions you may be interested in asking:

1) How will you work with me and my business to help me the my message to the right people in the right places?
2) Can you help me with marketing so that my website actually makes me revenue
3) Will my website be developed with accessibility in mind?
(This question is extreemly important in this day and age and will help you determine those companies who care about 'access-for-all' and those who dont. Its supprising how much more business you can get when you're website can be accessed not only by able bodied people but also by those with physical, visual and cognitive disorders.)
4) Will you be able to help me get into the search engines?
(on this one, avoid companies who promise to get you in 100's or 1000's of engines etc etc. These are usually the companies who know little about website optimisation and simply fire your website address to a load of unknown search engines instead of helping you get good rankings in the few that people actually use. If they talk with you about strategies to get high rankings in google, yahoo and msn, there more on the right track.)
5) Can you tell me about you're approach to ethical search engine optimisation?
(another important question because a lot of companies will do a lot of unethical things [ in my opinion of course which is closely related to the opinions of those gurus over at google] to try and force your site to the top of the rankings. You want to be listening out for companies that talk about rich content, regular site updates and providing value to the reader. These will be the companies to be interested in)

These are just a few key points for you to mull over at your leisure. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would simply like a chat about the companies you may have already seen etc. As i said above, i do work as a web developer and can offer you some very good options, however i'm available to offer any advice to help you get where you need to be, regardless.

I hope this is of help to you Margaret and look forward to either speaking with you or hearing some good news about your decision on a good web company.

Kindest Regards

Jamie Dixon
the_final_call@msn.com

Well i know Jamie Dixon for some time and i can say he is a serious web developer. He knows too much about programming and he used to find the better technologies for your web site.

I am web designer and i can say that Jamie is one of the best programmers i know. He has always the better solutions for your necessities.

Saludos Jamie !!!

http://kshq.awardspace.com

if you like my website then call 07963960499
We can do £5 an hour or £100 for the total website

Jamie has already covered most of the important points but I would like to reiterate the two that I find matter most.

1. Make sure the SEO is done well so that you get good natural positions on Google. If you get this wrong then you might as well not bother.

2. Find someone who understands what you want to do with your business, rather than just a person who can code a website. It is essential to work out what you want before creating a site. If in doubt, keep it simple and focused, rather than adding bells and whistles that are fun for the programmer but don't help make you money.

Over half of my sales now come directly from my companies' websites so it is worth investing time and money to get it right.