Janet Kaiser on wed 16 may 01
Susan's post reminded me why we went to (what Eckhard
thought at the time) an unnecessary expense, early in
our internet lives... Buying a domain name.
It cost US$35 or so for two years and with hosting fees
(including rerouting), it added up to £70 (not $) back
in 1999. That was not cheap, but well worth it because
we can change servers at any time and as long as we
inform our domain "host" we will always receive our
post and our URL remains valid. (I should be knocking
wood here... You know how it works... Mention something
which works fine and it goes down the pan instantly!
Murphy's Law, innit?)
Not only are there business cards, letterheads (private
and business) to consider. We have thousands (no
kidding) of International Potter's Path leaflets in
several languages in circulation around the world, we
are on mailing lists for associations, artists,
musicians, potters, foundations, museums, theatres,
galleries, etc. etc., e-mail and URL are listed in
publications, magazines, books, tourist information
brochures and goodness knows where else... And last but
not least, not only all the numerous links from other
sites, but all my e-mails in the archives here and on
other forums have The CoA signature at the bottom for
people to click and contact us... And you know yourself
how irritating it is when you click links which do not
work! Do you then do a search to find that contact
e-mail or URL? No, not very often. So there goes
another "contact"... Old, new or future customers,
clients, friends, inquiries, Path Makers, even
millionaires wanting to give us a helping hand in our
work or leave us a bequest... All lost!
Then there is The CoA web site... It took many patient
months to get it on to search engines and directories
such as Yahoo! I could not face having to go through
all that again!! Submitting URLs must be the most
tedious part of setting up a web site, even if it is
one of the most necessary parts!
Investing in a domain name is therefore IMHO 100%
essential these days. At the very latest, when you
start investing in business cards and other stationary
and in good time before you set up and start promoting
your web site.
Janet Kaiser
The Chapel of Art . Capel Celfyddyd
HOME OF THE INTERNATIONAL POTTERS' PATH
Criccieth LL52 0EA, GB-Wales Tel: (01766) 523570
E-mail: postbox@the-coa.org.uk
WEBSITE: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
Well.....tho i am now on another server as well as aol,
problem is, a few years ago I had all my business cards
and other promotional literature printed with the aol
email address. Alas, i am not up for another expensive
print job....which is what it would cost if i were to
have to have all this stuff redone.
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