We know: you don't want to program for the Internet, you just want to learn
how it fits into your business. We believe you don't need a course in computers in order to decide
how the Web can work with your marketing strategy. We offer our Plain English
Internet Glossary as a public service.
For more information about our Webpage Design and Internet Consulting services, including our 100% satisfaction guarantee, see http://www.jaderiver.com/
A URL, or Universal Resource Location, is just your Web Address. Like your phone number. It's the way that people find you.
Most web addresses are
of the form http://www.ourcompany.com/
http://
This is technical--it tells the computer information it needs to process the
Webpage it finds.
www.
This is just a convention that stands for WorldWideWeb. Many companies use
this, but there are some addresses that don't.
ourcompany.com
This is the domain portion of the URL-the real address.
The .com indicates in the United States that this is a "commercial"
address. You'll also see .edu for "educational", .net for
"network services provider", .org for "nonprofit
organization" and .gov for "government". The endings don't
really affect you as a user, though--they're just to sort some things out
administratively.
/
Then there's the ending slash--some systems will let you leave it
out, and many addresses don't require it. The reasons are technical, and not
important for this document. All you need to know is that if an address is
published with a trailing slash, you'll probably get to it a few microseconds
faster if you leave it on---and some technical people will give you a long lecture if
you leave it out! But don't add one if there wasn't one in the first place.)
In order to get a "personalized address" of the form www.ourcompany.com, you need to register with Internic. That costs about $50 per year, and raises your hosting charges a bit as well. It's sort of like having your own phone number. If you're willing to list yourself as an extension at someone else's "phone number," an extension address like www.hostingcompany.com/ourcompany/ is usually a bit cheaper. For example, Compuserve members can put up a webpage under the address http://ourworld/
Why would you want a personalized address? Well, which one would you rather print on a business card, or at the bottom of a print ad? It's a little easier for your customers to remember. But the choice is still up to you.
What's the Web? There are a lot of technical definitions, but from the marketing manager's point of view, the Web is basically "the Internet with pictures". Although that's sort of like saying that television is "radio with pictures"--the differences are both more profound and more subtle. But when you see all those print ads and television commercials with Internet Addresses like www.ourcompany.com, those are Web addresses. The Internet with pictures.
If you're interested in terminology, see also the section on WWW, which goes into further details on "Web," "Website," and "WWW."
Here's the key: if you can get to all the information by just using the scrolling arrows, it's all one Webpage. If you have to "click here" or use your mouse to get to additional information, you've gone to a new page--which may or may not be at the same Website.
One of the first questions we hear from marketing managers is, "How much does it cost to do a Website?" That's sort of like saying, "How much does it cost to do a radio ad?" The answer is: it depends.
A Webpage includes at least the following elements: copy, graphics, layout, internal technical design. It may require hooks to existing databases, e-mail processors, or other "backstage" technical applications. If the Website has more than one page, or has links to other Websites, it also needs to be designed for navigation.
While you can often use existing copy or graphics developed for print campaigns, they'll probably need to be adjusted to suit the Web.
We've heard of Websites that cost as much as $100,000 to develop--some simple online brochures can cost as little as $400.
As with any other media, there's a real difference between being good with the tools and being able to design an effective marketing piece: a good camera operator isn't necessarily a good ad director.
Similarly, someone who types 90 words a minute and knows how to use Word still may not be an effective copywriter.
Titles for those who keep the system running:
Network Manager, Web Administrator, Web Manager, Webmaster
Titles for those who design and write the "programming":
Web author, HTML author, Website Designer
A Webmaster is someone who keeps a Website running and available to its readers, like the Station Manager at a local television station. A Website Designer is someone who can design effective Websites, like a network show's producer. The two may be the same person, but usually aren't. They certainly need to be aware of the other's role, and be able to work together. Both need to be able to meet your needs as the client for the spot.
Note that as the industry matures, more companies are using the term Web Administrator or Web Manager for the person who keeps the site running once it's created, and Website Designer or Web Author for the person who creates it in the first place. These have turned out to be two quite different skillsets: the Web Administrator is most similar to a Network Manager, someone who keeps the system itself running, while the Website Designer is much more like a Documentation Specialist or Video Director: someone who generates the "programming" which is then distributed to its audience via the system that the Web Administrator maintains. Of course, in small companies these may well be the same person, and even in large companies one or the other of the tasks may be contracted out to a services company.
Even before "What does a Website cost?" we hear: Will the Work Work for My Business?" A new one-page article explains what will and won't work on the Web. We've also added The 6 Myths of Web Marketing to help you cut through those stories of a "40 million person market" and give you the truth behind the technology.
The related term, Cybermarketing refers to any type of Internet-based promotion, including Websites, targeted e-mail, Internet bulletin boards, sites where customers can dial-in and download files, and so on. The term doesn't have a strict meaning, though, and many marketing managers use it to cover any computer-based marketing tools, including CD-ROM presentations.
Just a fancy term some people use instead of Web Designer. There is no real definition for Web Weaver: it seems to come from the spider analogies, and
Oh, what a tangled Web we weave...
WWW is an abbreviation for World Wide Web. This is the same as the Open Web. Most people use the terms Web and WorldWideWeb interchangeably. A few development tools, however, notably Microsoft's Front Page, refer to an individual Website as "a web," and the Open Web as "the WorldWideWeb." This appears to be an attempt to create a term that will be useful for both Intranet and Open Web designers. That is, according to Microsoft, you could build "a web" for just one company to use, or build something for the World Wide Web. The problem is that most people are using the same tool for both, so in this terminology they're "building a web" to publish on "the Web," which can obviously get very confusing.
With the exception of a few authors and designers who were first exposed to hypertext technologies through the Microsoft package, almost everyone in the industry refers to "the Web" and "WWW" interchangeably to mean the WorldWideWeb, uses "an Intranet" to refer to a company's internal communications network which uses Internet technology; and uses "Website" to refer to a single Web Address, whether it is available from an Intranet or on the Open Web.
If you do run across someone who seems to be using "Web" where everyone else is using "Website," they're probably using Microsoft's Front Page for internal development for a single company.
In the last year, we've seen a number of helpful WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) website packages come onto the market. These include products like Adobe's PageMill, Microsoft's FrontPage, Netscape's Netscape Gold, and others. There are three important things to note here.
A good writer doesn't necessarily make a good director. A great film crew may not be great writers. And the creative skills needed to create a 30 second spot are different than those needed to create a 2 hour movie.
The WYSIWYG tools are like the tools the film crew uses. That's all.
As a marketing director, you work with experts in all different kinds of media. You know what your goals are, and how to get those experts to help you use their media to meet your goals.
You may decide not to try to meet all your goals in one medium. You may get new ideas as you see what the medium can do. You're going to see it differently than even the best expert, but the expert who is sensitive to marketing needs and goals will produce the best work for you. There's a lot more to Website design than creating a flashy looking page that looks good on one design station. That's the one danger of the WYSIWYG tools: they can give you the impression that you've created the same type of output a professional design firm would produce, but leave you with something that doesn't get many visitors and turns away the ones that do show up. The Web doesn't eliminate the need for marketing skills--trust your own instincts, and work with a Designer who understands where their work ends and yours begins.
As a marketing manager, you will understand better than anyone else that company promotional materials, including Websites, need to be fieldtested with the same kinds of conditions that your target market will be using. Knowing that, you will want to make sure from the beginning that your technical people are developing Websites that will make it through those fieldtests.
