Before you start building your website..

Whether you want to build your first website or enhance the existing website you have, the cost factor is likely to be on your mind on top. The website could be few text pages or something far more complex, but defining what you really need before hand would keep the costs down. Before you look for a web development firm, always define the purpose and the scope of the website. Here are few guidelines for you to follow.

Relax, take a pencil and a paper and try to answer these questions yourself.

1. Who are the primary users (ex: retail customers) of the website and why should they come to your website than your competitor?
2. What purpose the website will serve? Ex: lead generation, brand awareness, e-commerce, etc.
3. What media do you like to have? Ex: flash, audio, video, quality graphics, virtual tours, etc.
4. What are the similar websites you like?
5. What would you have your competition would not have?
6. How many pages you will like to have?
7. How would you market your website and what budget do you have?
8. Who will do the updates of the website?
9. Who will do the content writing (copy)
10. How will you measure the success of your website?
11. What's the time frame you have for the project?
12. Social Media?
13. Contribution you can provide for the marketing aspects
14. What would be the maximum price you can afford?

Having answered these is likely to keep your costs down and will avoid unexpected expenses. At the same time, it would give your website consultant information to understand your concept/thought better to make it a reality.

Boonex Dolphin to Create World-Class Social Networking Websites

We have been testing several Social Networking platforms to build websites upon for few of our clients and finally ended up with Boonex-Dolphin. Dolphin is a proud Australian Open-Source product and has been in operation since 2004; it has powered a number of social networking websites since.

Dolphin is one of five products that Boonex offer, including:

• Orca - An Ajax-based Forum script that is either standalone or built into Dolphin
• Ray - A community widget suite, including A/V messaging, MP3 player and more in a web interface
• Shark - An enterprise community platform
• Barracuda - A collaborative directory software script (no longer distributed or recommended)

According to Boonex, Dolphin is;

YouTube, MySpace, Odeo, Flickr, Match and Facebook - all in one, customizable and under your full control. You're limited only by your imagination - not by the software. Dolphin Smart Community Builder is a universal, free, open source software that allows you to build any kind of online community. With a huge variety of features & options, you can quickly launch your own very unique and successful website.

Centuryware has successfully implemented several Dolphin-based websites including Swingerspider, Starsmallbusiness, etc. If you are looking for a Social Networking website, please read the 'Social Networking Websites' section on the website.