Hello, business owner! I know you’re excited to begin your new venture and start creating your presence on the Internet.
Some of this information might be obvious or very basic, but we need to make sure you are familiar with a few things before we continue. This step is vitally important no matter how boring or remedial it may sound, so hang on tight. We’ll get you online momentarily.
Throughout this site, I’ll link to more information on key items. If you have time, these things can be super helpful to know. You can open links in a new tab in your browser usually with a middle click or holding down the CTRL key while clicking a link normally. This is handy for coming back later.
What is the Internet? The Internet is a worldwide network of networks using well defined protocols to connect MANY computers and other devices worldwide. (For more info from Wikipedia, click here.)
How is it different from the Web? The Web, or “World Wide Web” is a service protocol on the Internet to exchange human readable information. You use a program called a web browser (for example, Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome) to retrieve and display this information. (For more info from Wikipedia, click here.)
What about social media like Facebook and Instagram? Social media outlets are special services on the internet that help connect people to each other. Most have a website and an app (or program) you can use to take part in these services. (For more info from Wikipedia, click here.)
What other things happen on the Internet? The Web is one big aspect, but the Internet also includes email and a number of other protocols like various chat systems or live streams, both of which are often embedded in web pages but don’y need to be. The internet also has protocols and services for moving data streams and files and even the contents of disks and databases. (For more info from the Internet Society, click here.)
Why should I create a presence here? The Internet presents a remarkably cost effective way to tell people, both customers and potential customers, about your company and what you are offering. You can immediately reach a worldwide audience and help people looking for you find you. But it doesn’t end there! You can also use the Internet to send invoices, take payments, store documents, communicate with co-workers and a whole lot more. Many companies exist entirely on the Internet, saving the money of having to pay for offices and the time to commute while also being able to hire employees anywhere in the world. What if I’m just a little local company? While the Internet is worldwide, it is also local. You can connect with local colleagues and companies and help build your local community. Additionally, you can also connect with others doing what you do and exchange tips to improve even the smallest local business.
How hard is this going to be? If you’re completely new to computers or consider yourself not a technical person, this might be a bit of a challenge, but I’ll try to make it as simple and straight forward as possible and I’ll try to explain everything as we go. You will learn useful new skills you can use in the future. I know some people can feel intimidated by this stuff. I’ve taught my 80+ year old parents how to use the Internet and I’ve helped totally non-technical friends build their websites. I hope I’ll be able to assuage your trepidations, and you’ll soon be more comfortable with these things with a little understanding of how they work.
What internet services am I going to need? First you’ll need a way to access the internet. If you’re reading this, I will presume you already have that. Almost all of you will need at least a website and some method for people to contact you. One service builds from the last, like building a house. The first thing you’ll do is create a couple accounts so the services you use can verify you are who you are. I’ll walk you through the following things in order in this series:
- Free Email address (We’ll use Gmail here, but if you already have one, you can skip doing this, but DO NOT SKIP reading this section. It includes some basic security advice you will need to know. The purpose here is to have a method of contact that isn’t part of your new company’s internet presence. In setting this up, we’ll establish some best practices to help you along the way.)
- Free AWS Account. This is where you’ll set up most of the main services. The account is free. You pay for the services and usage. I’m showing you AWS here because it is the most scalable. You can go from one-person part time operation to huge mega-corporation without having to change providers.
- Domain Name Registration. We’ll walk through getting your company its own name on the internet or transferring one you may already have. You’ve seen these before – they often end in .com or .org and make up a key, identifiable part of your company.
- Creating a Web Site. This is one of the more challenging parts, but don’t worry. It isn’t that hard.
- Setting up your company’s email addresses. Your free email in step 1 is the backup, for if everything fails and AWS needs to communicate with you. In this step, we’ll create one or more email addresses like yourname@yourcompany.com for more professional correspondence.
- Getting the word out. We’ll cover putting this all together to create a slick, unified look and feel and then the important part: How to most effectively get the word out to people.
- Keeping it Working. Lastly, we will go over the important things to know about how to keep your website up to date and secure as well as what to do if disaster strikes.
What else is available? Future plans will include:
- More Marketing on the Internet
- Professional Social Media presence and use
- Mailing Lists and etiquette
- eCommerce: Selling Goods and Services Online
- Granting your employees and contractors appropriate access
- My website has too many visitors and needs more power! (Scalability is one of the main reasons I am walking you through setting up on AWS.)
- I got HACKED! What to do about a security incident.
- Resiliency and Disaster recovery. (This is the other major reason we’re working with AWS here.)
- How to run an entire office operation 100% remote and 100% virtual.
What about security? Excellent question! Security doesn’t need to be that hard and as long as you follow the best practices, you should be fine. The key is that a little prevention goes a very long way. All along this series, I’ll go through each step with security (and resiliency) best practices build in. Your business depends on these things and they should not be skipped. One of the biggest issues many people have is keeping track of their login credentials (usernames and passwords). We’ll include instructions so you know how to keep your internet resources safe.
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