Law Office Computing

Winton Woods

---------2000

Getting Your Home on the Web is Easy

The Internet and e-commerce seem to creep into almost every discussion these days. To the many lawyers who have asked me how they can go about establishing a presence on the World Wide Web, this article is my answer.

There are three different matters you must consider once you have made the decision to establish a presence on the Web. First, you have to get a name, which in Internet parlance is called a Uniform Resource Locator or URL. Secondly, you need to build a Web site. Finally, you need to find a way to host that Web site on an Internet server.

Obtaining Your URL

It used to be that there was only one place that you could go to register a URL on the Internet and that was the infamous Internic, or Network Solutions. That is no longer so. You can still go to Network Solutions and pay them $70 to secure your URL for two years, but why would you want to do that when you can go to places like directNIC.com and register URLs for $15 year? Incidentally, directNIC.com is my place of choice for registering URLs. If your desired URL, say www.HarryPotter.com is already taken, directNIC.com will propose a number of close alternatives for you to evaluate. Also consider that while the URL you want may be taken in its “.com” form it may still be available in “.net” or “.org”. In addition, there are a number of other country domains from which to choose. I think for American lawyers .com or.net are the preferable addresses and I recommend starting there.

Try to pick an easy name to remember instead of something very clever. If you want your clients and colleagues to come to your site they need to be able to remember your URL. One of the nice things about the directNIC.com Web site is that it gives you the opportunity to explore many different names. One technique to keep in mind is to place a hyphen between words. That may be sufficient differentiation from a URL already taken. For example the Smith law firm.com may be taken, but you may be able to get the Smith-law-firm.com or the Smithlawfirm.net or theSmithlawfirm.org. All in all, it really isn't hard to pick a good name and it can be fun to do. Do try and get something easy to remember instead of cute! I see a lot of URLs that are so hard to retype that they lose much of their value.

Building Your Website
There are many places on the Internet where you can build a Web site -- including directNIC.com which offers the service for free as long as you are willing to accept advertising. Generally speaking, all of the free Web sites come with some kind of catch that may make them unprofessional in appearance.

Since a floating banner ad seems over the top to me, I suggest the "Web page Wizard" in Microsoft Word 2000 as the best free solution. It provides a very easy interface and is a good introduction to what can seem like a pretty overwhelming process. Best of all, you can build a Web site and post it to the Internet using only Word 2000.

Another option I explored is the service provided by Network Solutions. For $9.95 a month, they will supply you with a very simple, but not very flexible, Web site including space on a server. The price is right, but the product is very weak and the folks at Network Solutions remain as arrogant as ever. Since I needed support help, several e-mails, and phone conversations to get an extraordinarily simple Web site up and running, I really can’t recommend it. As you will see below, you do have some other options that will cost you little more per month. My suggestion is that you get your URL from directNIC.com and then explore the options for buying space on a server that will host your new Web site.

Once your Web site is developed you may decide that you want to hire a Web site designer to build a new and improved home for you on the Internet, but it is unnecessary to do that in the beginning. I think it makes a lot of sense to start with something very simple to develop both your knowledge of the Internet and the basic building blocks of a Web site.

Finding a Host
Once you have acquired your URL, you have to find a place to put it. One option is to put it on your own server and put your whole office on the Internet. That is not only hard to do, it is expensive and in fact it’s not very safe. If you want to worry about hackers and crackers and other kinds of wild animals on the Internet then that’s probably what you want to do. If that's not an attractive possibility to you, then you need to find somebody or someplace to host your Web site. There are many providers and many price ranges for this service. I have used a number of them and the one that in my estimation stands out above all others is our old friend Dell.

Dell, probably the most successful Internet based retailer of computers and computer products, offers a Web site that is a total pleasure to use. Using their expertise, they have developed a new product called DellHost.com, where you can buy a Web site space on a very secure computer for less than $15 a month. DellHost also gives you a wonderful set of choices to help you in developing your site. If you are a beginner, you can choose from a variety of simple Web sites, and if you have higher-level skills, they will, for free, provide you with very high-quality software for the design of a more intricate site. The beauty of DellHost is that it is completely scalable -- it is very simple to improve and expand your site if you decide over time that you want to offer more complicated kinds of content. Since DellHost provides a complete line of services for any Web site, I suggest that you start by visiting their site and let the hosting Wizard guide you through. If you spend an hour at the Dell host Web site, you will know an awful lot about the Internet and Web Page building by the time you are done.

If for some reason you don’t like Dell, there are literally hundreds of places where you can host your Web site. Just remember that there is some value associated with the kind of stability and competitive aggressiveness that you get from a company like Dell. The $5.95 a month Web site may be a really good deal so long as it works and the company stays in business, but if it goes down and takes your Web site with it, it is a very bad deal! In my experience, the problems associated with lack of accessibility and the rapidity with which companies go in and out of the Web hosting business point in the direction of an established entity like Dell. Again, I cannot recommend Network Solutions but there are others that you might want a look at such as www.icom.com, which I have used several times over the years. Whatever your choice finally is, I think you will find this to be a very fulfilling and exciting adventure. We all have a hidden artist in us and this is really great way to discover your secret Monet.

Once you have established your Web site you will want to consider the many ways in which you can use it to market your firm and its services, but that is a topic for another day.