Cyberspace is huge, and the possibilities out there are endless. You can take a trip to just about anywhere, limited only by your imagination and your budget. Let's take a look at a few things you can do on your journey.

Low-Cost and Improved Communication
Email is amazing. You can type your message, and send it to one or many parties, all at once, without postage or long-distance telephone costs. Your message will be time- and date-stamped, and you can request a receipt to let you know when the message was received. You can even send graphic images and photos via email. Delivery time is much faster than the traditional snail-mail.

Online Business Cards or Brochures
These are the most basic of web pages. Information is presented in a fixed page layout, and visitors click through the various navigation buttons that link them to the individual pages within the site. Your contact information is displayed on the pages, so that the visitors can contact you in the traditional way, i.e. phone or FAX or snail-mail. Or, you could provide an email address where they can send you a generic message.

Online Catalogs
These pages can be basic or sophisticated, depending on the features that are included. It is possible to display several pages of photos and text descriptions, and allow the visitor to click to an order form where they click check-boxes, and send the message to your email box; you would call the customer and close the deal by phone.

Online Credit Card Processing
It is possible to have online order forms that include calculations for quantity, tax and shipping, and online credit-card transactions to close the deal at the very moment that the customer is ready to buy.

Shopping Carts
If you expect to sell multiple items in one purchase, this feature is the way to go. Your customer can select an item, store it in his cart, and go look at some more products. Each selection goes to his cart, until he's ready to check out, and get his order totalled.

Development of Email Lists
Your web site can include an automatic collection of all data (name, address, phone, order information, etc.) that is entered by the visitor. This information can be used for future promotions and as a marketing tool.

Keyword Searches
If you have a large database of products, it is sometimes best to create a system that allows your visitor to query your product line by various categories of products, or by any keyword that they select. The searches could be by product title, product description, price range, color, size, etc.

Archive of Newsletters
Your site can contain multiples newsletters, listed by a Table of Contents of the title of the articles, or you can provide a keyword search for your visitor, in order that they might easily locate all articles related to their specific topic.

Bulk Email
This is a quick, low-cost way to distribute your message to many recipients at once. And there's no bulk-mail preparation time or postage costs. There are ways to accomplish this task absolutely legally. But if you don't work within the Internet guidelines, you may be subject to hefty fines. You'll need one of our Internet tour guides to walk you through the process.

Inventory or Order Tracking
Your web site can contain data that needs to be accessed by several locations, rather than a single office. Each time an item is sold or moved, that step can be recorded along the way. This allows your viewers up-to-the-minute information about your data from any location.

Administrative Interface
If you need to change information, such as prices or dates, on a frequent basis, you can do so through an Administrative area that allows you a window in to various parts of the web site.

Security
If you have privileged information, intended for specific users, such as members, or wholesale vendors, you can have that information stored behind a secured area. Access is allowed only through unique usernames and passwords, or through a cookie system that stores data about your visitors.

By now, you're probably pretty excited about the adventures that lie ahead. Before you pack up, let's see what's most important for your trip.

LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN!