The production phase can be broken down into three areas and will include:

Step 4a - The design production: The artistic look and feel design production, usability designing, navigation production, and image and button creation. The homepage of site and inner page template both need new design applied to them. The homepage design may use same template rest of site uses, or it may be unique. If it differs from rest of site, then make sure its look and feel is very similar to look and feel of inner page template(s). Also, if it differs, consider applying this entire step-by-step guide to homepage as well, treating it as a separate, but related entity.

Step 4b - The technical production: This entails html coding, any other coding to contribute to functionality and configuration of server’s environment. The technical aspects could also include any server side coding in a major programming language, database design and development, and site security measures.

Step 4c - The marketing production: This area includes creating homepage and pre-determined inner pages to be search engine and index friendly. It also includes copy writing for every page. Any mechanisms for interacting with visitors will be produced here. For example, forms on your site that asks users to give information are ways for a user to interact with your site. Although look & feel of form falls under ‘design’, and actual mechanisms that make form work falls under ‘technology’, purpose of forms will be very marketing-centric. What you ask, how you store data, and how you retrieve it and use it later are all marketing issues that should be addressed in this step.

Step 5 – Testing: The produced site now must be loaded onto a staging area that is exactly like production environment, or made accessible to testers only. During this phase, various people will test all aspects of site, including functionality, spelling and grammar, hyperlinks, and all other elements. This is often called Quality Assurance phase.

Step 6 – Publishing: This phase is push of new site from staging to production. Here site is made live and is now on World Wide Web.

Step 7 - E-marketing and maintenance: Unless site is marketed, it won’t matter how well-designed or technically robust it is, no one will ever visit or use it. Therefore, final and ongoing phase entails implementing e-marketing techniques, keeping site’s content fresh, and making continual adjustments based on site specific and customer research.

Whether you decide to tackle building a new website yourself, or you choose to hire someone else to do it, steps outlined above ought to be followed. If you decide to do it yourself, you’ll need to read up on graphic design and usability, Web technologies and e-marketing.

If you hire an outside company to build a site for you, ask them how they plan to accomplish it. Ask them if they have a set method for building a new site or re-vamping an old one. If they have a good system, it ought to look a lot like steps above. They ought to be proficient in all aspects of website development and be able to communicate to you everything they are doing and why. Remember, better your site is initially and better you manage your new site going forward, better your business will be.

Jason OConnor is President of Oak Web Works, The synthesis of Web marketing, design, and technology Jason is a Web development expert, e-strategist, and e-marketer who is successfully affecting the future of the Web in a highly positive way

http://www.oakwebworks.com

Some link transfer software packages that work with Microsoft's Windows are: PCsync, IntelliMover, PC Relocator, and PC Upgrade Commander.

In each case, software must be installed on both your old and new computers. The software scans your old computer hard drive, to inventory folders, subfolder, and files and then you select data files that you would like to transfer to your new computer.

It sounds like a fairly simple way to handle your data transfer. However, be aware:

~ Generally, these programs want to move all contents of your old computer to your new computer. That's OK for your data files but moving program files that run your applications may cause problems because older applications may not be supported by your new computer operating system. Transferring a Windows 95-era program to a computer preloaded with Windows XP operating system could be a problem because many of those programs haven't been upgraded to run under Windows XP.

~ When you move full contents of a computer system, everything moves over, including those obscure files that had your old computer running sluggish in its final days.

~ Moving data through a USB cable isn't fast, but it is faster than data transfer through a parallel port.

Choosing a Data Migration Software Package

~ Does software allow you to pick and choose which files are moved, or does it move EVERYTHING -- even junk files?

~ How is data transferred? A wireless network is faster than a USB cable, which is faster than a USB cable, which is faster than a parallel cable. Are you prepared to wait hours or even days for this transfer to take place?

~ If you're using Internet as a holding place for your data, check your connection and upload speeds. It could take hours to move those files.

~ Consider investing in a high-capacity external hard drive, a plug-and-play device that you'll simply connect to your new computer. The drive, though more expensive, will get far more use than one-time migration software. Getting Ready for Your Data Migration

~ Get rid of all of your old files. Fill your recycle bin on your old computer with as much as you can. There's nothing worse than bringing useless data to new computer.

~ Make a software checklist. Is your versions of current program applications compatible with Windows XP? Look on Web for free Windows XP upgrades to new versions of programs you need, such as your Palm desktop software.

~ Does your new computer have preloaded software on it? Chances are good latest Internet browser is already pre-load on your new computer and thus you do not have to transfer older browser version.

~ Make a list of user names and passwords that are stored in files on your old computer and automatically appear when you visit Web sites. They could be lost in move, denying you access on your new computer.

Copyright Steven Presar