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FAQs

Why do I need a website?

Increase Sales

At a minimum, a web site makes it easy for you to showcase your goods and services which will generate more business leads from potential customers and cause your present customers to buy more. Now that secure online payment is a reality, a company or organization can complete point-to-point sales transactions from seller to buyer, eliminating costly distributor expenses. Moreover, with the advances in shopping cart software, a fully enabled e-commerce web site has never been easier to set up and maintain. In no time, you can create a virtual storefront or office that can be open twenty-four hours a day, all year long.

Increase Communication

A key advantage of the Internet is that it allows for the instant distribution of information. People from all over the world use the Internet on a daily basis to search for various products and services. Using web sites to distribute information in a timely manner is a key reason sales organizations are building web sites. Visitors can easily find the information they are looking for, whether it is product specifications or availability and pricing. Altering the information contained within a web site makes more financial sense than phoning, faxing, or mailing your customers every time new information regarding products or services is released.

Reduce Expenses

A web site is an online brochure that delivers information, immediately and internationally over the Web, without the expenses of related printed material. To reduce faxing and mailing costs, automated mailing lists can send the same email message to 100 customers for nearly the same cost as sending one. Email is cheaper than courier services, postal mail, faxes or phone calls and faster than most. If you have suppliers on the Internet you may also be able to do your purchasing cheaper and easier.

Reduce Service Costs

Customer service support phone lines are expensive to maintain. Moving customer service to the web site could save a bundle. Your web site will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for service and support. The service area of your web site can be as simple as a dedicated email box and published answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), or as sophisticated as an interactive, online chat feature where your qualified service staff respond directly to customers in real time discussions. The ability to have service and product updates, provided on a web site, adds value to a company's service, as well as additional visibility to their customers.

Increase Marketing

A web site creates opportunities for additional marketing and joint marketing with other organizations. There is no greater image builder for a company than a compelling and informative web site that can be seen all over the world. Your organization will be placed into dozens of online directories and search facilities, increasing your visibility and creating new markets by opening additional advertising channels.

Create a Network

A web site gives you the ability to do surveys, qualification cards, and subscriptions. It can be a cost-effective way to qualify potential customers and get valuable feedback from existing ones. It can also be used to experiment with ideas by highlighting a product prototype online and sampling visitor opinions.

How do I choose a web host?

The Web expands every day, and so do your choices. How do you find a web host to meet your business needs? There are many providers, each one with a different focus and services designed for a specific segment of the market. As you study your options, you might consider the following factors:

How much should you spend to host your e-business?

You've probably seen the web hosting advertisements that offer massive amounts of data storage for only $9.95 per month. You get what you pay for. Data storage is cheap and easy to supply, however it is much more difficult to provide customers with uninterrupted high-speed access, quality customer care, technical expertise, and guaranteed uptime.

It is important to make sure exactly what you need, and what you are getting, before you jump at a bargain. Choose a provider offering prices commensurate with the range and quality of its services.

Minerva offers the most reliable and affordable web presence solutions on the Internet. For a few extra dollars per month, your web site can perform with the best.

What should you get for your money?

Data Storage (Disk Space) - In order to have your web files served to the world, you need to have a generous amount of disk space on our servers where you can upload your pages, images, sound clips, etc. and store them. Minerva allows you to manage your space through FTP, and if on a Unix server, through Telnet.

Bandwidth (Data Transfer) - Bandwidth is the amount of data transmitted or received through a unit of time. In web hosting, bandwidth is consumed when visitors make requests for files on your web site and download them to their personal computers. When you add up the total of all files downloaded off of your site in a particular month, your total should be lower than the amount allotted with your hosting plan. If it is not, your file sizes may be too large or you may be generating a lot of hits - in which case you may need to upgrade to a larger hosting plan or to a dedicated hosting server.

Your Own Domain Name - A true virtual domain name (www.mycompany.com) gives your site instant credibility. New customers have a good first impression, and returning visitors don't have to remember where your site is hosted in order to reach you. It's like having a direct phone number rather than an extension.

POP3 Email Accounts - You can send and receive mail through Post Office Protocol 3 accounts, so that your email addresses end in your Web site's unique domain name.

Email Aliases - Forwarding and Autoresponders email aliases and forwarding allow you to set up names@yourdomain.com that forward to a POP3 email account that you may already have. This allows you to check multiple aliases by downloading mail from one email account. Autoresponders are also a great feature with hosting accounts since you can automatically respond to customer emails sent to a particular address with a standard message, like "Thank you for contacting our Sales team. We will be responding to your email within 24 hours."

Technical Support - Whether you are new to web hosting or an expert, you will want your hosting provider to have great technical support online, over the phone and through email. This way, when you have a question or concern you can find the help you need in a timely manner and have the ability to find the information in the format you wish to receive it.

What operating system is best for your web site?

An operating system or "platform," such as Microsoft's Windows NT or DOS is the basic set of commands that tell your computer how to open applications and store files. In the early days of Internet activity, most servers operated on a Unix platform, an extremely powerful and flexible system that requires considerable technical expertise to administrate. Unix is still as popular as ever, but today you have a choice: Windows NT and Unix variations such as Sun Microsystem's Solaris, Silicon Grahics' Irix, and Berkeley's BSD.

Experts offer widely different opinions as to which platform works best for web sites. In the end, the choice depends largely on what you want to do with your site. For example, if you'll be using Microsoft applications such as MS SQL (a database program) or Microsoft FrontPage (a web authoring tool), you might be more comfortable operating your site on a Windows NT platform. Since NT, MS SQL and FrontPage are all Microsoft products, they are more compatible with one another. On the other hand, many engineers prefer the flexibility, security, and control of Unix servers. Unix also allows for more web sites per server, lowering the cost of hosting per account.

As your site grows in size and complexity, in all likelihood you'll decide that a particular platform is desirable. It's best to anticipate this contingency and choose a web host that offers multiple platforms and backs them up with technical expertise. Minerva offers a wide variety of hosting packages on just about every leading platform - and we're always looking toward the future and the latest in server technology. When you host with a market leader like Minerva, you can be sure that the best technology that becomes available will be available for your web site.

What do you get out of a world-class data center?

Redundancy

No matter how excellent the equipment, no matter how expert the engineers, technology fails occasionally. A web host with multiple routers and switches, secondary servers, and UPS systems with backup generators can provide consistent, high-speed access and guarantee at least 99% uptime.

Web hosting companies, unlike Internet Service Providers (ISPs), have high-speed lines connected to more than one Internet "backbone" provider. This is crucial to reliable web site performance, since network service can be compromised by technical glitches and unexpected surges in traffic. A redundant network design allows a web host to direct traffic away from Internet "hotspots" and along the fastest routes - and your site remains available even if one network's service is interrupted.

We have diesel generators that can operate our servers for 7 days independently; back-up tape storage; redundant servers; and links to at least three network providers - all to make sure that your site will remain available.

Reliability

Excellent web hosting providers can offer this guarantee because they've invested in the best automatic monitoring equipment; hired experienced engineers who can anticipate problems and emergencies; and installed redundant backup systems to take over the moment anything goes wrong.

If a web host guarantees only 95% uptime, keep in mind that this translates into 8.4 hours of down time per week: the equivalent of a "closed" sign on the door of your 24-hour business.

Security

It takes many layers of Internet security, from password protection to firewall barriers, to prevent determined hackers from wreaking havoc with your Web data. Most hosting companies offer some assurance that their network and software are protected from unwanted intrusions such as spamming and hijacking. Make sure the hosting company you choose has enough security measures in place to ensure that your data is completely protected.

Minerva's servers are well protected, both physically and digitally. Our advanced firewall system keeps intruders out of our network; our switches are configured to prevent data snooping; and we monitor site security 24 hours a day.

Servers

Although it's possible to host a web site on the CPU of an average personal computer, responsive web sites require high-speed SCSI disk drives, error-correcting RAM, and the most powerful microprocessors available. Reliable providers host their sites on equipment built to withstand the constant bombardment of web traffic. Minerva hosts your sites on the most popular platforms, and are constantly upgrading to maintain state-of-the-art technology.

Speed

Web hosting companies typically connect to the Internet through T (Transmission), OC (Optical Carrier), and DS (Digital Signal) lines. Many smaller web hosting providers still use T1's to connect your site to the world at a rate of 1.544 megabits per second. Minerva uses redundant multiple DS3 (45 Mbps) lines to offer our customers the bandwidth they need for multiple user sessions on their site at any given time.

The best hosting companies use redundant lines to ensure that customers' sites remain responsive even if their primary Internet connections are temporarily unavailable. It's a good idea to determine which providers offer backup connections fast enough to maintain your site's performance in the event of a primary line failure.

In addition to offering the fastest network connections, a host should provision its lines and circuits to use less than 50% of available bandwidth. Overburdened network connections will inevitably result in poor site performance - in fact, a lightly used T1 line will transfer data faster than an overused T3 connection. Be sure to ask hosting companies about network capacity and utilization to make sure that your site will benefit from the fast network connections they've advertised.

What level of technical support should you look for?

The company you choose should offer round-the-clock technical support - you don't want to be stranded if you encounter an uploading glitch on a Sunday morning at 3:00 a.m. You'll find that some hosting companies offer support only by email, and others offer toll line support during restricted business hours. Make sure that your hosting company staffs its data center round the clock - you'll get more agreeable support if your 3:00 a.m. call doesn't activate the beeper of an engineer at home in bed.

Browse through the host's automated online services to make sure they're user-friendly and useful, and check that telephone support numbers and email addresses are easily available. We also suggest that you contact a hosting provider's technical support engineers before placing your web site in their hands. Ask some questions and make sure the representative can speak to your needs and to your level of expertise.

We provide the best customer care in the industry. Our engineers monitor and maintain your site 24 hours every day, and automatically fix any problems that might affect your site's performance. If you have any questions or concerns, our technical support staff can be reached by phone 24 hours a day.

Setting up a website

Getting your domain name

As a Minerva customer, we will register your domain for you. Just type in your preferred domain when signing up for one of our web hosting plans. Please check to make sure the domain name is available and be sure to include your credit card number with your order. We will confirm the registration of your domain name by email.

Building your web site

Depending on the scope of your project, you may want to hire staff or contract developers. However, several good software packages are available that make building a web site almost as easy as using a word processor. Minerva's design department is available to help guide you through this process.

Hosting your web site

On the technical side, there are several web hosting options (Shared Hosting; Dedicated Hosting; Colocated Hosting) offered by many companies. Prices range from nothing to thousands of dollars per month, but the bottom line is this: · Will your internal or outsourced web hosting solution allow you to upgrade as your business grows and technology changes? · Will your solution provide adequate customer support? When you select Minerva, the answer is "yes" to both. We deliver outstanding technical support throughout your service term, not just at point-of-sale. Our hosting solutions also allow for easy, affordable upgrades to handle increased traffic and technological advances.

Promoting your web site

Like any kind of marketing, there's no sure formula in attracting visitors to your web site. We do, however, suggest you trumpet your site both online and off. Mix e-market methods like newsletters and banner ads with old school advertising like direct mail and radio spots. (Of course, it's up to you to determine what method is most appropriate for your business.) Online, registering with the major search engines remains -- initially anyway -- to be your best bet in attracting eyeballs. Registering is free and fairly easy, but requires persistence to make sure you don't get lost among all the other sites screaming for attention.

Choosing a domain name

What's a domain name and why should I care?

A domain name is basically your Web site's address on the Internet. Typically, it's a word or phrase followed by a .com, .net or .org (example: mysite.com). These names correspond to long, hard-to-remember numeric addresses that identify each web or mail server connected to the Internet (EXAMPLE: http://www.yahoo.com's IP is 204.71.200.33)

It's not only your address, but also your brand. A good domain name is memorable yet practical. After all, a customer's visit to your site depends on them being able to type it in. A few things to keep in mind:

  1. Shorter is better - It's a lesson learned offline by established brands like Fed Ex (Federal Express), KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and IHOP (International House of Pancakes). Online, an established bookseller quickly realized it was easier -- and likelier -- that customers would type in bn.com instead of BarnesAndNoble.com.
  2. If you have to spell it, don't use it - Again, you want people to remember your domain, but not at the risk of them misspelling and missing it altogether.
  3. At last count, over 6 million sites have "web" somewhere in the name. So, please, don't use it unless you really, REALLY have to. Otherwise, you might be dated in a few years when everything goes wireless. (Just how valuable would your AT&T stock be if they were still called American Telephone & Telegraph?)

How do I get a domain name and how much does it cost?

Until recently, only one company — InterNIC — was sanctioned by the U.S. Government to issue domain names. Today, there are dozens of registration services.

But why wade through them all? Minerva will submit your domain name at no cost. Just give us your preferred domain when signing up for one of our web hosting plans. (Domains are subject to availability)

Do I have to use .com? No, but experts recommend you use .com if you're on the Internet for business or e-commerce. Sure, .com is everywhere, but that means it's easy for customers to remember, right?

Still, sites hosted in the United States can also be registered with a .net or .org. If you're determined to have an uncommon URL, you may obtain domains from other countries.

Examples of international extensions:

.to (Tonga)
.cx (Christmas Islands)
.md (Moldova)
.co.uk (United Kingdom)