TK Major Web Database Design

Getting started...

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: What will it cost?

A: No two websites are precisely the same. Or, at least, they shouldn't be. TK Major does not use commercial templates or predesigned websites, like some web design companies.

The cost of a website depends largely on the number and type of features desired and the amount of content that must be prepared or processed by TK Major. An additional factor is the amount of time spent discussing and finalizing design ideas. Having a good idea of what you want — or being flexible and easy to please — will help hold development costs to a minimum.

A very simple site might cost no more than several hundred dollars to design and implement and less than a hundred dollars a year for hosting and domain registration.

Q: What makes a website — what do I need?

A: The basic building blocks of a website are:

A website is basically a set of files on a remote computer network — the web host — that is connected in a special way to the internet so that it can serve those files as they're requested by vistors' web browsers.

You could host a website from your own computer (with the right kind of internet connection), but unless you had a very powerful computer or network of computers it might bog down serving up web pages to your visitors. And if your website offered high bandwidth content like music or video files, it might not take many visitors to bring it to its knees. In addition to bandwidth concerns there are also significant security issues when a computer is set up as a web server.

For that reason, most small and intermediate websites are hosted by third party web hosts using shared hosting. Sites with heavy traffic may require a virtual server or a dedicated server.

You will almost certainly want some form of personalized e-mail attached to your website. This is included in most commercial hosting plans but the maximum number of email accounts included can vary widely.

At TK Major we can work with the web host of your choice, or we can handle hosting arrangements for you, using one of the commercial hosting services we've selected as business service partners.

You will also almost certainly want your own domain name so that visitors will be able to find you simply by typing something like www.your_company_name.com in their browser's address bar.

Domain names are registered through a domain registrar. Domain names are unique across the internet. There is only one TKMajor.com, for instance. As a consequence, many of the most common or simple .com domain names are already taken. If you're looking to grab, say, books.com — you'll find you're too late. The fine folks at Barnes & Noble acquired that domain name some time ago.

But the common .com, .net, and .org suffixes are not alone. There has been an explosion of potential domain suffixes that have become available over the last decade or so. Suffixes like .fm or .tv — and lots of others — have become increasingly popular. (Not all domain registrars are able to provide all suffixes and some specialty suffixes may prove somewhat expensive.)

 

An important warning about looking for a new domain name:

It has been documented that some domain registrars (including the well-known Verisign/Network Solutions) have adopted a domain squatting practice. If a potential customer uses the domain name availability look-up on their site but does not immediately register that name, the registrar then puts a hold on the domain name for a period of time, preventing that domain name from being registered through any other domain registrar for that period.

For this reason, TK Major recommends using a trusted domain registrar.

We recommend using this domain availability look up service.

(This is one of our preferred domain registrars. Despite an overly cute name, we've found them to be an excellent service provider. Unlike some larger registrars with which we have dealt, this outfit has solid, responsive customer service. We have never had any difficulty in contacting them.)

 

Many of our new customers already have existing websites and domain names. But if yours will be a new site, you'll need to register -- or have us register -- your desired domain name. We encourage our customers to register their domain names directly. In our experience, this is the most direct and trouble free approach -- since the customer always has direct control over his domain name. However, we will happily register and maintain your domain name for you for a small annual service fee.

Q: What do I have to do?

A: It's easy...

Q: How long will it take?

A: We are a small, flexible shop and our response time on specific service requests is frequently very fast.

But, in our experience, design and style development of a new site (or makeover of an old site) can be slowed by a number of factors — notably but not limited to delays involving content provided by clients as well as design/change approval.

Q: What kind of special features do you offer?

A: With over 20 years of experience in providing specialized database and office automation services to small business, TK Major brings special expertise in developing e-commerce or informational database-driven websites.

TK Major also draws on experience in marketing, sales, and advertising to help assure that the content on your website will put you, your company or organization, your band, art or music in front of potential customers, information consumers and fans in an inviting, easy to use form.

Additionally, TK Major offers advanced multimedia services including video, audio and Flash animation. With twenty years of experience in commercial music, radio, and advertising content production, TK Major brings a broad set of advanced skills to a wide range of tasks.

Q: How and when should I pay TK Major for the services I decide upon?

A: Our standard payment policy is quite straightforward:

Unless prior arrangements have been made, work on your site will not begin until we have received and confirmed your payment of at least 50% of the estimated cost of the website. (We accept checks drawn on US banks, major credit cards, or Paypal payments.)

Upon completion of design and site coding, full use and access to your website will be restricted until full payment of any remaining or additional charges is received and confirmed. (Please contact us for other arrangements.)

Due to the nature of web design work and frequently evolving design requirements, it is not possible in all cases to provide a binding estimate of charges. But even where such a binding estimate is offered, it is nonetheless contingent upon the full payment of any additional charges incurred during the course of development for additional work approved by the client.

 

Other considerations ...

Q: How will people find my website?

A: As anyone who has used Google or other modern search engines probably already knows, these days it is easy to find a given website if you know what you're looking for...

For instance, try Googling "TK Major web database development long beach" and it is almost certain Google will take you straightaway to this site. But if you begin removing keywords, the search may lose its focus — unless I've done a pretty good job helping make sure that Google's spiders — the friendly robots who prowl the internet looking for new or updated content — can find the key information by which I want the world to be able to find my site.

Try Googling "long beach database design" and I think you'll see that, while a number of other entries may appear, you'll be likely to find this website at or near the top of the first page of returns. (Of course, that could change in the next five minutes. The world wide web is always changing and growing.)

Search Engine Optimization has become a buzzword in web circles over the last decade or so. In a nutshell, it simply means making sure search engines like Google and Yahoo will find and use key information about your website and the business or organization it represents to make sure people looking for the services or information you provide will be able to find you easily and quickly.

Over the years, the overly clever have developed a number of ways to cheat search engine placement. The first and most famous, in the earliest days of the web, was filling the hidden area of a given web page supposed to be devoted to general information about the page and/or website with the word "sex" — repeating it over and over. For a short time, that did work.

But search engine developers quickly caught onto the trick and began actually penalizing websites that tried to cheat the search engine's ranking. As the quest for web advertising revenue grew, so did the number of search engine optimizing schemes. It became a sort of arms race between the search engine operators and those trying to cheat their way up the rankings.

But with far greater resources and some very smart programmers, search engines like Google have been highly effective in neutralizing bogus search engine optimizations — even highly sophisticated strategies that make the old "sex, sex, sex" SEO seem laughably quaint.

For that reason, among others, TK Major does not waste your time or money creating get-rich-quick type search engine cheats.

We do however, make sure that your website is fully and properly optimized to assist search engines in helping the people who are actually looking for the kind of services or information your site provides. In the long run — and likely the short run, as well — we believe this is the best strategy for you, your potential customers, and the world wide web itself.


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