Presto Information Services Support

Unit 1 / No.83 George Street
Parramatta NSW 2150
Phone: (02) 9635 5155

Web Hosting is becoming the standard way for businesses to be represented today.

People have predominantly moved away from printed media - Newspapers, Yellow Pages, White Pages, Special Guides, etc to the Internet. The reasons for this shift are numerous (cost, convenience, audience, maintainability etc).

Whatever the reason you decide on, there are very good reasons to consider getting an Internet presence and advertising your business or association on your own website.

What is involved in Getting a Website?
How much can it cost to get a presence on the Internet?
What can I do with a Website?
Who can I talk to?

The processes to setup a website are detailed here.

Determine what Domain type you require
Get together the appropriate Documents (depending on the requirements of the domain type you select)
Decide on a preferred name or names that would be suitable for you
Build a Website or Webpages
Approach a Domain Name Reseller for Registration and Delegation
Once registration is approved and the site is delegated copy my website to the Internet
Review the Website
Plan for Updates or reviews

Domain Types

Domain	Restrictions
.com.au	Can only be registered for 2 year periods You must be an Australian registered company, or business with a registered business number (ABN, BRN, BN). (The licence requirements for a .com.au domain name require your business to be registered for business in Australia, this means registering your business or company name with one of the official Government Authorities, eg ASIC, State Dept. of Fair Trading, or alternatively by obtaining an Australian Business Number (ABN) from the Australian Tax Office. The domain name itself should be an exact match, acronym or abbreviation of the supplied business registration, or it should bear a close and substantial connection to the domain name. Domain names can be 2 to 63 letters, and words can be separated by hyphens, but not spaces.
.net.au	Can only be registered for 2 year periods You must be an Australian registered company, or business with a registered business number (ABN, BRN, BN). (The licence requirements for a .com.au domain name require your business to be registered for business in Australia, this means registering your business or company name with one of the official Government Authorities, eg ASIC, State Dept. of Fair Trading, or alternatively by obtaining an Australian Business Number (ABN) from the Australian Tax Office. The domain name itself should be an exact match, acronym or abbreviation of the supplied business registration, or it should bear a close and substantial connection to the domain name. Domain names can be 2 to 63 letters, and words can be separated by hyphens, but not spaces.
.org.au	Can only be registered for 2 year periods In order to qualify for these domains your organisation must be a "non-commercial organisation". The domain name you register should have a strong link to the organisation to which it represents.
.asn.au	Can only be registered for 2 year periods In order to qualify for these domains your organisation must be a "non-commercial organisation". The domain name you register should have a strong link to the organisation to which it represents.
.id.au	Can only be registered for 2 year periods Designed for individuals, who reside in Australia. You may register any personal name by which you are known (includes nicknames or aliases).
.com
.net
.info
.biz

There are a number of discrete steps involved and each has its own potential cost component.

Registering a Domain Name
Domain Name Delegation and Web Hosting
Web Site Construction
Web Site Maintenance
Web Site Advertising

Registering a Domain Name

There are many different types of Domain Names and each has its own requirements and target audience. In Australia, there are specifically five types (shown as the first five entries in the table of Domain Types). There are also generic domain name types (.com, .net, .info, and .biz). These names do not have restrictions and are provided on a first in first served basis.
Most Domain Names are allocated on a two year basis and are renewed at the end of that time period. If a domain name is not renewed the name lapses and anyone else can then register it.

Costs for Domain Name registration vary between registrants. Registrants are companies able to register Domain names.
Presto Information Services currently charges about $55.00 for a .com.au domain name request.

Domain Name Delegation and Web Hosting

Domain Name Delegation and Web Hosting is performed by a Web Hosting Providor. Delegation of your Domain Name is normally included in the Registration cost.
Some companies may charge extra for delegation of your domain name.
A Web Hosting Providor is a company that can store and display your website. Delegation is a process where other domain name servers are informed of the existence and location of your website. Once delegation is complete, all requests for your website are sent to a specific Web Server that is hosting your Domain name.

A Web Server manages your Internet content. Internet content is made up of web pages (text, graphics and applications) representing the website constructed for the Domain Name owner. The cost of maintaining and hosting a website depends on the volume of traffic accessing the website and the size and complexity of the website itself.

Presto Information Services currently charges $16.50 a month for a standard Web Hosting Service. More complex and larger sites can cost $45.00 or more per month.

Web Site Construction

Building a website can be a simple process or a complex process depending on the desired results.
A website can simply be an online brochure for your company, duplicating the company's printed brochure. It can also be an online shopping experience, an ordering facilty for services or products, or even an extension of a companies data records and management systems.
Web Page Brochure

A website can be extremely large such as the website for the 2000 Sydney Olympics which had over 2000 pages on the site and it could handle up to a million visitors per hour.
Business Web Page

Many businesses now use the Internet to communicate with other businesses or remote employees using secure transactions, dramatically reducing operating costs for other more traditional services (phone, fax, mail) at the same time as providing direct communication reducing delays and double handling.
Costs of setting up a Website will depend on the complexity of the site. Presto Information Services can build a standard website with up to 5 pages for about $200.

Web Site Maintenance

Once a web site is constructed it should require little maintenance. If it is built using reusable components and is well set out, it should be easy to make adjustments at a future date. Additions to your website to make the internet more useful can include shopping carts, direct payments, video or slide shows, online documentation, and secure access for select visitors. Web pages can be modified to provide these services, the cost will depend on the time needed to perform the changes and the complexity of the programming resources involved.

Web Site Advertising

Advertising your website will depend on how widely you want it to be seen. Usually the most important way to get the message out to existing clients is via your business card, Invoices, correspondence, email messages, links to companion sites, and advertising with some of the larger search engines (Google Ads, Yahoo, AltaVista, etc).
These are low cost (a few cents per click to your site) and are direct. More extensive advertising campaigns can be more effective and costly such as area mailouts, banner ads (at bus stops and on buses and taxis).
Whatever method you use, analyse the results to determine the effectiveness of your advertising dollar.

Advertise your business
Promote an Event
Organise a Conference (take bookings, store newsletters, download documents, organise venues and attendees, keep everyone up-to-date from one location).
Advertise, sell, support products and services over the internet
Extend your business from an Intranet (internal network) to an Extranet allowing remote users secured access to your files and ability to update database entries

Presto Information Services can provide you with advise you on costs, timeframes, project scale and availability of resources to build to your requirements.
Please feel free to contact us regarding any information on Web Hosting, Domain Name Registration and Web Site Construction. Home | About Presto | Services | Support | Contacts | Members © Presto Information Services 2005. All Rights Reserved.
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