March 8, 2016 by gamalm

Online Presence

All business need to have some sort of online presence regardless of the industry they operate in. You don’t have to be an expert in order to create a formidable online presence for your business. There are a few simple things that you could follow in order to establish a basic foothold. We strongly advise you to start creating profiles on social networks to establish ownership of your startup name as soon as you’re done with branding. Use a tool such as (namecheckr.com) which checks all social networks for name vacancies to save time.

1.1        Domains & CMS

Domain names basically determine the URL name a client will have to enter in order to access your website. Due to the fact that domains are a limited resource you might be forced into changing your startup’s name just because the suitable domains were already purchased (which could also indicate pending competition).

After purchasing a domain name we suggest you go through the list of content management systems in order to choose the one most suitable for your business. Content Management Systems (CMS) are applications that help you launch a website without experience in coding. For example, you might be familiar with WordPress which is the most commonly used CMS for bloggers who want to launch online journal with no experience in web development.

1.2      Website Templates

A website template is a pre-designed webpage, or set of HTML webpages that anyone can use to “plug-in” their own text content and images into. Website templates are basically websites that were developed by experts in order to give your site a certain set of features. The difference then between getting a template and getting a web developer in order to create a sit is simple, web templates are sold on online marketplaces for as little as $10 to as much as $60 depending on the amount of features. In addition, buying an online template will help you launch a website in less than 30 mins, while hiring a web developer can cost you a few months.

Website template marketplaces such as Envato.com also feature a freelancing platform, where you can hire a freelancer to add an extra feature to the template you purchased or help you personalize it.

It is important to understand that using freelancers & ready-made templates is only suitable for business that don’t have technology as their core element, as those startups should be geared towards in house development. However, website templates can be used to set up a landing page for your business if that is part of your MVP strategy.