Ian cohen tech in law project

B Y : I A N B . C O H E N
WEBSITE 101 – A HOW-TO GUIDE
ON HOW TO BUILD AND REBUILD
A WEBSITE

DOMAIN NAME DECISIONS
I DOMAIN NAME DECISIONS
• Before a firm or an attorney begins to engage in the conjuring up ideas about the
design and style of the particular web site, there is one critical decision that must
be made before all else - a domain name that the firm can call home. This
decision should more than likely reflect the firm brand, but should also consider
email exchanges, web marketing, and protect against issues such as a name
partner leaving the firm. Below, I discuss what seems to be the most frequented
issues that law firms and attorneys face in regards to choosing the correct
domain name that fits their personality along with that of the website.
• Choosing The “Correct” Name
1 KEYWORDS
 When you first begin thinking about the domain name that you want to use, it
is important to consider four to six keywords or even phrases to best describe
the type of practice that you are associated with.
 In other words, what types of words or phrases may people or clients see for
your services with Internet access?

DOMAIN NAME DECISIONS CONT’D
1 Is the Name memorable?
 Picking a name that people can easily remember and refer to is always a positive outcome.
 Using a domain that is easily remembered offers your clients and any other parties an
easier and more accessible way of finding you, especially in this difficult technological world
that we live in.
 Additionally, when generating your domain decision, it’s also a good idea to associate your
website with the extension of “.com.” Despite the fact that technology has made such an
impact on our lives in so many different ways, there are still people out there who may not
be as “tech-savy” as you. So make it easy for those particular clients or other parties, and
use “.com!”
2 Does your site inform the public what it is exactly about?
 This may sound like a silly thought, but too often do companies or law firms create a
website that do not allow for the public to actually fully understand what services that they
exactly offer.
 Thus, your domain name should identify what you do and what services you offer with a
simple look or run through of the website.

WEB HOSTING CONT’D
II. The web hosting decision making process
 Before you make a decision on which Web hosting server to buy, it would be a food idea to
ask yourself these four simple questions:
(1) Have you taken all of your hosting needs into consideration?
(2) Have you thought about the software your server will be running?
(3) Do you know what the role of your server will be?
(4) Will it be able to meet the demands of that role?
 If you don’t resolve these issues at first, there is a high likelihood that you could be setting yourself
up for a long stream of problems in the near future.
==> So what should you look for when purchasing a Web server?
o In today’s aggressive market, network administrators have a number of choices,
however, the price often plays a role in the end outcome.
o Rather, price should be the last thing you consider when it comes to finding a web host. Like most
other things, you get what you pay for. Free or incredibly cheap will often have far more drawbacks
than they're worth. On the flip side, the most expensive hosts are not usually worth the cost either.

⎯ Domain hosting can be hard to understand. Instead of paying
for the web page space, you pay for your domain and then have your
website hosted anywhere you like. With domain hosting, you can use
your ISP or free hosting service, and still reap the benefits of having a
personalized website URL.
⎯ So before you take price into account, you should consider
these several other factors for evaluating Web servers:
• Operating System
• Most likely, the operating system you plan to use on your server will play a
key role in coming to a final decision on your purchasing decision. For
example, a machine that will be running Windows 2000 Server will have
different requirements than a Red Hat Linux-based machine. The Windows
2000 server requires at least a Pentium 133MHz processor with 64MB of
RAM, while Red Hat 7 can be installed on a 386 or higher PC.

(2) Manageability
• One of the biggest server headaches is simply managing the machines. Is the server you’re
looking at easy to take care of? If you had to add or replace a hard drive or CD-ROM, could you
do it quickly and without much effort? Will users notice much downtime?
(3) Your Monthly Bandwidth Allocation
• If you have an internet connection at home, you probably already know what bandwidth
means. It’s basically the amount of data usage that your website is taking up. Your bandwidth
gets used whenever a person loads a page of your site, listens to an MP3 file, watches a video,
uploads or downloads something from your website or even checks out an image.
==> Best Choice? Choose a hosting plan where you get at least 2 GB bandwidth per month.
(4) How much Disk Space do they provide you with?
• In most cases the amount of disk space that’s allotted would be more than what you need so
this is basically the space on the hard drive of your shared or dedicated server that’s allotted to
you.
==>Best Choice? Choosing a hosting plan where you get at least 1 GB Web hosting space.

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (CMS)
III. CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
• Content Management Systems (CMS) products will give your website a
consistent look-and-feel, make design changes faster, and allow for quicker
deployment of new website additions. Although there are many open
source CMSes available, we're going to focus on those that are referred to as
“The Big Three.” The advantages of using such a CMS include portability,
support and a large developer base with frequent updates and
improvements. We will discuss the following three CMSes:
1. Drupal - a free open source content management system written in PHP
and distributed under the GNU General Public License
2. Joomla - an open source content management system platform for
publishing content as a Model–view–controller (MVC) web application
framework
3. Wordpress - an open source CMS, often used as a blog publishing
application, and is the most popular blog software in use today

CMS CONT’D
Drupal
 Drupal is currently up to version 6.17, with working ongoing for
version 7, a much anticipated release. Drupal's built-in functionality,
plus the thousands of freely available add-on modules, provides
developers with much-requested features including:
 Electronic commerce
 Blogs
 Collaborative authoring environments
 Forums
 Peer-to-peer networking
 Newsletters
 Installing Drupal is fairly straight-forward:
1. Create a MySQL database.
2. Then upload the Drupal package to your web server, following the on-screen
instructions via your web browser, and configure your new website.

CMS CONT’D
Joomla
 Like Drupal, Joomla enables developers to build complex web sites and online applications. It is built
upon PHP and MySQL, is free, and can be used to create:
 Inventory control systems
 Data reporting tools
 Application bridges
 Custom product catalogs
 Integrated e-commerce systems
 Complex business directories
 Reservation systems
 Communication tools
 The Joomla CMS has a very large developer base, and its core "out-of-the-box" features include:
 User Management
 Media Manager
 Language Manager
 Banner Management
 Contact Management
 Polls
 Search

CMS CONT’D
Joomla Cont’d
 Installation for Joomla is much the same as with
Drupal.
1 Create a MySQL database.
2 Then upload the Joomla package files to your web server,
point your web browser at the installation file, and follow
the on-screen instructions.
3 Then, customize your installation, work on the theme,
and post some content!

CMS CONT’D
Wordpress
 Wordpress is the most popular CMS in use today.
 Currently has many thousands of sites alive today, and the
software is supported by a large developer network.
 Wordpress provides the following features to developers:
 Full standards compliance
 WordPress Pages
 WordPress Links
 WordPress Themes
 Cross-blog communication tools
 Comments

WEBSITE DESIGN
IV. Website Design
 Once you have figured out the logistics of name and hosting,
the next step in your journey is to figure out what to include
on your law firms website.
 We have all seen impressive law firm websites, and many
that are not so impressive. The key is to develop a site
that is easy to navigate, expresses who you are and
attracts the clients you seek to serve.
 A higher end website design or redesign will involve a
concept that lays out the general strategic direction for a website
- In some ways, it can act as a strategic plan for an organization,
laying out the goals of the project and the communication
strategy to be employed.

WEBSITE CONTENT
V. Website Content
 In my opinion, a successful website is the driving force behind
increasing sales and your company's profits per year. And believe it or
not, one essential component of a successful website is the way it
looks. For many businesses, they desire a high-end web design that
will not only attract customers, but guide them through the sales
process effortlessly as they were in the store.
 Without compelling website design, a site lacks the professional
look and feel that is needed to set it apart from the rest.
 A key to establishing your company's unique online identity and a
strong brand name is a high-end web design that reflects your business
while leaving a positive lasting impression on the visitor.

WEBSITE CONTENT CONT’D
Your website has only seconds to capture interest. So you have to be edgy, but not
poke someone in the eye. You have to be willing to challenge and amuse, while not
bragging or boasting. Your site, and particularly your homepage, should be
provocative enough to be memorable and cause others to tell colleagues to visit your
site. For example, you will find the best ideas on how to go about acting in this
manner.
• Read books and relevant publications and summarize your reading and document your
ideas.
• Brainstorm with others. Engage a team of trusted advisors. Being a part of a powerful
mastermind group and trusted advisors is a great way to improve your ideas and
creativity.
• Invest in self-development. A Japanese proverb says: "I will master something, then the
creativity will come."
• Question basic assumptions. This applies not just to your own assumptions, but also to
those of your advisers and clients. You gain new insights to arrive at the proper solution.
• Take a contrarian view. Discuss a concept's pros and cons. Clients hire us not necessarily
to agree with them, but to question their views and basic premises in order to improve
their business.
• Create a story. Using a story to convey a particular concept forces us to develop ideas
to make it more effective.
• Interview others. This is a terrific way to learn, gain new ideas and leverage effective
marketing while developing new audio and video content for your website and that of
the person you are interviewing.
• Social networking. When joining effective and smart online communities, you may
quickly gain knowledge of what is being asked and discussed, and how you may be of
help to others.

FINAL THOUGHTS
• Design. Your site should be professionally designed, attractive
and engaging, and be easy to navigate in order to quickly gain the
visitors’ attention and interest. Good use of images is important as
well as the use of action shots of you with your clients.
• Content. Your site must focus on your visitors’ interests and
address the question of what’s in it for them and how to improve
their businesses and lives. To accomplish this, strong content must
be developed in the form of products, services and intellectual
property, while constantly evolving.
• Strategy and tactics. Determine what the business should look
like, how it should position itself online and what Internet
components are critical to making the business a success. Decide
how you should reach and communicate with customers: will they
purchase products, read articles, subscribe to newsletters,
communicate through blogs and online communities?

Ian cohen tech in law project

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