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Return to the Model Horse Gallery Home PageThis article developed out of a response to a question on setting up a web site. My background on this topic includes having maintained websites since the early/mid-1990s, starting with hand-editing HTML. I've maintained sites/sub-sites for non-profit groups, including my church, NAMHSA, and my own web sites.
So, you'd like to join the online world and show your stuff. Perhaps you just want to share about your latest acquisition or show win, or perhaps you've got some new things you'd like to offer for sale, or perhaps you're announcing information for an upcoming show.
Before beginning any endeavor, it's always a good idea to know the size of the problem
First things first. How much information do you want to convey? How long do you want it to exist?
If you only have a few pictures and only need it up for a few months, then perhaps finding a "free" service for posting images and/or pages is all you need.
If you plan to be in business "forever" and offer an extensive line of products, then perhaps you should consider setting up your own web site or store.
Next, you might want to consider the resources (time, monetary, capabilities) for the set up and maintenance of the information.
Many free sites have the ability to provide templates and/or run through a series of questions to help build a site one or more pages at a time. Some software packages can automagically create pages with mulitple images on web pages.
But if you're looking at a full site with customized shopping cart, it might be beyond your capabilities, so hiring someone might be your best bet. Or perhaps, it'll involve the investment of some powerful web editing software.
And realize that the time involved to set up a system isn't anything like the many hundred-times that is involved to maintain a site over the long period.
I, the Model Horse Gallery Curator, have four active domains/sites. The work involved on individual sites ranges from monthly updates (about 5 hours/month) to "I could do this full time" (MHG; up to 40+ hours/week). Some modifications take longer than others and "cannot" be stopped in the middle; you might need to work 4-6 hours straight on one change.
Pros of hiring someone to do the work: Knowledgable professional applying years of experience in putting together your site. Getting it right the first time (and/or not dealing with the frustrations of things not working, first hand).
Cons of hiring someone else: Waiting for other person to do the work (especially hard if it's needed "now"). Cost. And the less you pay someone the lower it might be on their priority list.
Pros of doing it yourself: Total control, work accomplished on your time schedule.
Cons of doing it yourself: Constant updating can become tedious. Not to mention trying to keep up with all the technological issues of maintaining a web site.
In the model horse hobby, there are capable folks able to set up and maintain a web site. Some offer their services in trade to an artist for the products that artist offers. Usually a post to a major hobby forum will result in a number of responses, or ask for references from web sites you admire.
There's also the professional route, where you're hiring someone locally or internationally to do the work (outsourcing). This can be up to hundreds of dollars an hour in costs. And then there may be some cultural and linguistic issues dealing with an outsourced firm.
Regardless of whether you do the work or have someone else, it is highly recommended that at least monthly (or after a major upgrade) a backup of the site is generated on media (e.g., CD or DVD, etc.). Most domain hosting companies do periodic backups, but if a hosting company goes out of business, or the developer company disappears, you have something in hand to recreate the site.
So, what about having a "vanity" domain, versus using a "free" service?
Pros of hosting site on "vanity" domain: Usually shorter URL. Identification of domain. Often easier to remember URL.
Cons of hosting site on vanity domain: $10-50 annual fees to have domain (depends on length of ownership of domain name and which "service" one goes through). Free-$100/month in fees to host site (your ISP may allow you to "host" the vanity domain on their server at an additional cost from what you're currently paying for access charges); most monthly fees are $20 or less, the higher rates apply to "professional"/business sites that need all kinds of bells/whistles. Some sites have limited disk space (for site itself); others limit bandwidth (amount of data that can be transferred/viewed); some sites may have increased $$s to be paid for high amounts of either/both of disk usage and bandwidth.
Pros of using "free" site hosting (e.g., ISP pages): Low(er) cost. Little system maintenance. Great for a short term presence.
Cons of using "free" site: Not a very professional appearance. Limited bandwidth, disk space.
If you do decide on using a vanity domain, it is in your best interest to register the domain yourself (or ensure it's registered in your name, not in a developer's name or company name). Too many people have "lost" their site because someone else registered it and then went out of business or disappeared.
Another option is something like an eBay store. The cost of the store is based on the number of items for sale, as well as the number of images and other features utilized.
Pros of using an eBay-like store: Established web traffic. Ease of finding products.
Cons of using an eBay-like store: Breaking rules of doing business via eBay like store may/will result in being banned from site. Limitations of how items are displayed and other features.
If you'll be selling items, there are a number of products/features that can be utilized for sales.
Paypal has both free and paid shopping cart features that can be utilized. Many credit card processors have shopping cart systems that can be utilized.
Pros of using shopping cart system: Security built into product. Instantaneous transfer of funds for purchase.
Cons of using shopping cart system: Limitations (on free versions) on modifications of features. Cost (for paid versions) which may include a monthly fee as well as a per-transaction fee. Paypal "free" shopping cart system is "free" to use, but each transaction has a fee associated with it, often less than would be for processing the charge in a merchant account. Chargebacks (which happens when a credit card customer disputes a charge, and/or the item is not sent to billing address) and the associated fees charged to the merchant.
Pros of not using a shopping cart system: Lack of complexity to implement sales.
Cons of not using a shopping cart system: Payment needs to come via mail which slows down the transaction and may result in bounced checks. Lessened professional appearance of site.
One thing I highly recommend if selling online (including eBay and/or using PayPal) is that the address you use for primary communication is not the same as the contact address on the web page, which is different than the address used for eBay, which is different from the address used by PayPal. Or in other words, a minimum of four different addresses.
The last three can be "aliases" or "forwards" where they all end up in the one mail personality, but having them separated can eliminate a lot of hassles to easily and quickly identify "incorrect email address used" by scammers trying to get your information through spoofing or phishing schemes.
Many internet services give you at least six different SMTP mailboxes, so this is one reason where more is better; you might also be able to use "free" email addresses (e.g., Yahoo, HotMail, Gmail), but some online venues (like eBay) will not accept free email addresses.
(Using a fifth email address to subscribe to all mailing lists and the sixth for purchase feedback/contact from online sites is another way of segretating out email.)
For setting up multiple email addresses/identities, check your email software's help section. Eudora uses "personalities". Outlook uses "accounts".
A note on PayPal. PayPal does allow you to have two accounts, one for personal (which does not accept credit cards) and one for business (which does accept credit cards). These accounts need two separate email addresses (and two separate bank accounts).
You may already have the software to start doing the basic web pages. There are WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors that allow a user to put things together without having to detail with the "language" of HTML. MS Word and Netscape have HTML page generation modes.
Or if you're going to have a lot of pages or want to start to do something more complicated, you might want to get a web page editor. These include Adobe's GoLive, Front Page, etc. These are also WYSIWYG editors that include site management (for example, checking all the internal links), ability to make one change propagate throughout an entire site. Some software also had the ability to implement version tracking and allow "locking" of files so multiple people can be working on the site at the same time. (The Model Horse Gallery is maintained through Adobe GoLive CS2. Adobe Photoshop CS2 is used to manipulate images.)
Design complexity, including frames, CSS, and flash, may be a nice touch, but does your target audience have the high-speed bandwidth and latest generation of web browser to appreciate the result?
Also realize that many spammers collect email addresses from web sites so consider using an image and/or script to attempt to conceal an address to limit the amount of spam received. You may want to consider having a "forward" address on the web site that can be changed if spam grows too much. (Info@domain.ext, sales@domain.ext, support@domain.ext are often targeted by spammers, even if not on the web site.)
Another thing to consider is the design size of the display. Many folks do not like to track horizontally to see the information. And even though screens may have the capability to display thousands of pixels wide, some folks change the settings on their browser to view larger type (as their eyes grow old).
Spell checking, and grammar checking, are always appreciated. Having another set of eyes to pick up on little errors (errata) are also appreciated (if reported in a non-condescending way).
Do try to have clear navigation through the site so you can get to and from where you want to go. A site map can help with this.
If you plan on putting together a site to sell things (e.g., get income), then a trip to your local municipality's recorder or business office may be needed. Contacting your state entity that collects sales tax may also be required, if your state collects sales tax.
A big question is are you selling new items or things you have made, or selling stuff that's been in your possession for years? Some localities require sales tax to be collected on new items (think dealer sales) or items you have created yourself, but not on "garage sale" like items.
Other than the ehtics of being above board and "legal" in registering as a business and collecting/reporting/paying the appropriate taxes and fees, there are some other potential benefits. The biggest is the potential affect on income taxes. Using the "long form" and doing the work via a "Schedule C", you can claim all the materials used to create, sell, and ship as expenses in your business, which should result in decreasing your tax hit. Consult your accountant or tax representative for further help.
It's one thing to create a site, it's something else to have a lot of visitors.
Remember than some free sites "lock" access to pages/images when the bandwidth limit has been exceeded; this may result in hours or days of inaccessibility. (Not a good thing if you're trying to sell something.)
Sharing the URL to your information in forums is helpful. (But be wary of promoting to the point of nausea.) Many folks include their site main URL in an email signature.
There are companies who specialize, for a (large) fee, to submit your URL to search engines. One way to get folks to visit is to have folks link to your site. (Popular in the early 2000s were "rings" of sites linked by common interest. As of the mid-2000s I haven't seen their popularity continue.)
Good luck in your internet adventures.
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