WiX woes: What is your installer doing?

Summary: How to detect different modes of installation.

When building an application installer, it's often necessary to distinguish between different modes of installation, i.e. initial installation, repair, upgrade, uninstall, etc. And as with everything important in MSI, detecting the mode of installation is a PITA (and by PITA, I do not mean flat bread of Mediterranean origin). To help you a little bit, here is a table adopted from a StackOverflow topic (and comments), that shows the values of various Windows Installer properties can help you determine the installation mode:

	Install	Uninstall	Repair	Modify	Upgrade
INSTALLED	FALSE	TRUE	FALSE	TRUE	TRUE
REINSTALL	TRUE	FALSE	TRUE	FALSE	FALSE
REMOVE="ALL"	FALSE	TRUE	FALSE	TRUE	TRUE
UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE	TRUE	FALSE	TRUE	TRUE	TRUE

You can use logical operators NOT, AND, OR to build complex conditions.

Here is how you can detect some common conditions:

First-time installation

• NOT Installed

Any installation

• NOT Installed AND NOT PATCH

Installation and repairs

• NOT REMOVE

First-time installation and repairs

• NOT Installed OR MaintenanceMode="Modify"

Upgrades only (during uninstall phase)

• Installed AND UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE

Upgrades

• Installed AND NOT REMOVE

Full uninstall (except when triggered by a major upgrade)

• (REMOVE="ALL") AND (NOT UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE)

Any uninstall

• REMOVE~="ALL"

If you notice errors or want to include some other conditions, please post a comment.

See also:
MSI Property Patterns: Upgrading, FirstInstall and Maintenance
Upgrading, FreshInstall, Maintenance and other MSI convenience properties
MSI Writing Guidelines: Installation Scenarios
How to execute custom action only in install (not uninstall)

My Walmart account was hacked

Summary: Lessons from my Walmart account hacking incident.

Out of the blue, I get an email from Walmart:

Dear Alek Davis,

Personal information associated with your Walmart.com account - name, email address and/or password - has been successfully updated as requested. If the account change included an update to the email, for your added security this account update confirmation is sent to both the new and old email addresses. All future emails will be sent to the new address only.

If the account information update is correct, no further action is needed.

If you did not make these changes to your account, please call us immediately at 1-800-966-6546.

If you have any questions, please reply to this email and let us know how we can help.

We appreciate the opportunity to assist you and look forward to your next visit.

Sincerely,

Your Walmart.com Customer Service Team

I try to log on to my Walmart account and fail to authenticate. I attempt to use the I Forgot My Password feature, but get a message stating that my email address is not registered with Walmart. It's obvious: someone hacked my Walmart account!

I call the above mentioned 1-800 number, but the customer support department is closed (it's around 10 PM PST, but apparently, the world's largest retailer cannot afford 24x7 customer support). There is no option to report the problem online. What's a girl to do?

The best thing I can do is send an email reply describing the problem. I get a canned response indicating that I will get a human response within 24 hours. Okay, what's next?

Results from a quick Google search suggest that a common pattern of Walmart hacking involves using saved credit card data to purchase digital goods. So, I log on to my credit card's account (for the card that I normally use at Walmart.com) and see two unauthorized transactions: one in the amount of $60 (turns out to be 2 Straight Talk 1000-Minute, 1000-Text, 30MB Web Access Service Cards), and another in the amount of $50 (2 SKYPE $25 Prepaid eGift Cards). I call the credit card company to report fraud. I also checked other credit cards that could've been on file with Walmart, but do not notice anything suspicious.

I try logging on to Walmart.com again, and notice a strange address popping up in the email field of the Sign In form for a second just before it is overwritten by my original (and no longer good) address filled in by LastPass. Apparently, I have a low-security personalization cookie, that is not good for anything important (like checking or changing account info, or submitting orders), but it could give me some info about the hacker. I disable LastPass and reload the form. Get the email field populated with this address: ssuper981@yahoo.com. Hello, hacker. How're you doing?

Silly idea: what if I try to log in with my original password? The hacker can't be that careless, but... One... two... three... I'm in! Dear, ssuper981@yahoo.com, thank you for failing Hacking 101. I change my email address back, change the password, and remove all credit card info from the account. I see the two orders in the processing state, and successfully cancel one of them. I use a form to send an order cancellation request for the second purchase, but apparently the Skype eGift cards have been already sent. Well, it's now between Walmart and my credit card company to dispute the charge.

What else can I do? I go to the Yahoo! Security Center and try to find an option to report fraudulent activity coming from a Yahoo! email, but Yahoo! does not provide any way to do this (via a form, email, or phone).

The next morning, I call Walmart (thank God Walmart can afford customer support during normal business hours) to report the incident to a human and have a short conversation with a nice woman (btw, have the companies started bringing customer support back from the foreign lands? talking to a motivated native speaker is so refreshing!). Now, it's time to get back to life, but first, lessons learned:

1. Never save credit card information when shopping online! Yeah, it's convenient, but may eventually cause more hassles.
2. Read #1.

And a couple of comments:

• Walmart: No 24x7 customer support? Seriously? Even for security issues? Come on, you can do better!
• Walmart: Good call on sending notification to old customer's email on personal profile changes. Have I not seen this message, it would have taken me much longer to realize that my account was hacked.
• Walmart: Shouldn't user activity that starts with personal profile (and email) changes and is followed by an immediate purchase of digital goods raise a flag for suspicious activity? I know that you rush to get a payment, but you see: you lost $60 (which could've easily been $110), and I'm sure you need that money to hire more support people (at the very least, for security related issues).
• Yahoo!: Would it be too much to ask for some way of reporting fraudulent activity originating from a Yahoo! email account? Just asking.

Have a nice day, everyone. Be safe!

Send HTML email from VBScript using CDO

Summary: VBScript to send HTML (and plain text) email.

It's 2013 and apparently there are no tools that would allow you to easily send HTML-formatted email.

Don't get me wrong: of course, Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail, or whatever client you use, allows (and sometimes forces) you to send email in HTML format, but what if you want to test a format of a message that your application (code) and not you (person) sends? What do you use? Sure, both Outlook and Thunderbird allow you to insert an HTML file as the body of the text, but as soon as you do, they alter your HTML source in a way you you would not imagine, so that the delivered message will show little resemblance to the original.

After wasting several hours with existing email clients and trying available scripting samples (e.g. the ones written by Paul Sadowski and Rob Vanderwoude), I decided to do it the right way and wrote a little utility that would take your HTML file and send it without making any changes to the source code. Lo and behold, here is a VBScript file that you can use for sending email messages:

• SendMail.wsf

IMPORTANT: This script requires the helper Common.vbs file to be located in the same folder (or in the PATH).

SendMail.wsf script takes email body from command line or retrieves it from a file. It supports both HTML and plain text formats. You can send your message via a remote mail server or using the local SMTP service. You can also include attachments with the message.

Here is the usage info (you can get this output by running the script with the /? or /h command-line switch):

cscript //nologo SendMail.wsf /h

DESCRIPTION:

  Sends an email.

USAGE:

  cscript SendMail.wsf [/option[:parameter[;...]]] [...]

OPTIONS:

  from
    Email From address.

  to
    Email To address. Use comma to separate multiple addresses.

  cc
    [Optional] Email CC address. Use commas to separate multiple addresses.

  bcc
    [Optional] Email BCC address. Use commas to separate multiple addresses.

  subject
    [Optional] Email Subject line. 
    [Default: TEST]

  body
    Plain text, HTML text, or path to file containing email message.

  smtp
    [Optional] SMTP server.
    [Default: localhost]

  port
    [Optional] SMTP server port.
    [Default: 25]

  html
    [Optional] Indicates whether email message format is HTML.
    [Values: yes|no|y|n|true|false|t|f]
    [Default: no]

  file
    [Optional] Indicates whether the [/body] parameter points to a file.
    [Values: yes|no|y|n|true|false|t|f]
    [Default: no]

  add
    [Optional] Indicates paths to file attachments.
    Multiple files must be separated by semicolons.

This is how you would invoke the script:

Example 1: Send HTML-formatted email with email body defined in a file and with two JPEG file attachments using local SMTP service

cscript SendMail.wsf /from:me@mail.com /to:a@b.com /cc:"b@c.com,c@d.com" /subject:"Hey!" /body:Test.html /html:y /file:y /add:"a.jpg;b.jpg"

Example 2: Send plan text email using a remote SMTP server

cscript SendMail.wsf /from:me@mail.com /to:a@b.com /cc:"b@c.com,c@d.com" /subject:"Hey!" /body:"How are you?" /html:n /file:n /smtp:"smtp.server.com"

TIP: If you reference files when invoking the script (such as attachments or file containing message body), make sure that you use ether absolute path or path relative to the current directory; otherwise you may get the "File not found" error.

And here is the source code, in case you need to take a peek at the logic:

<!-------------------------------------------------------------------
  -- DESCRIPTION
  --  Sends email message with optional attachments.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------>
<package>
<job ID="SendMail">

<script Language="VBScript" Src="Common.vbs" />
<script Type="text/vbscript">
Option Explicit

Const SWITCH_FROM    = "from"
Const SWITCH_TO      = "to"
Const SWITCH_CC      = "cc"
Const SWITCH_BCC     = "bcc"
Const SWITCH_SUBJECT = "subject"
Const SWITCH_BODY    = "body"
Const SWITCH_SERVER  = "smtp"
Const SWITCH_PORT    = "port"
Const SWITCH_HTML    = "html"
Const SWITCH_FILE    = "file"
Const SWITCH_ADD     = "add"

Const SWITCH_ADD_DELIMETER = ";"

Wscript.Quit(Main())

'--------------------------------------------------------------------
' Method
'   Main
'
' Description
'   Performs the main operation.
'--------------------------------------------------------------------
Function Main()

  Dim strFrom, strTo, strCc, strBcc, strSubject, strBody
  Dim strServer, nPort
  Dim bIsHtml, bIsFile
  Dim arAttachments
  Dim i
 
  Main = -1
 
  ' Make sure the script is executed via cscript (not wscript).
  RevertToCscript(False)

  ' Show help if needed.
  If (IsHelpMode(False)) Then
    ShowHelp()
    Main = 0
    Exit Function
  End If
 
  ' Initialize run-time parameters.
  If Not Initialize _
  ( _
    strFrom, strTo, strCc, strBcc, strSubject, strBody, _
    strServer, nPort, bIsHtml, bIsFile, _
    arAttachments _
  ) Then
    Exit Function
  End If
 
  ' Make sure that all files (if any) exist.
  If (bIsFile) Then
    If Not FileExists(GetAbsolutePath(strBody)) Then
      WScript.Echo "File '" & strBody & "' does not exist."
      Exit Function
    End If
  End If

  If GetArraySize(arAttachments) > 0 Then
    For i = LBound(arAttachments) To UBound(arAttachments)
      If Not FileExists(GetAbsolutePath(arAttachments(i))) Then
        WScript.Echo "File '" & arAttachments(i) & "' does not exist."
        Exit Function
      End If
    Next
  End If
 
  ' Get contents of the message body from a file.
  If (bIsFile = True) Then
    strBody = ReadTextFromFile(GetAbsolutePath(strBody))
  End If
 
  SendEmail _
    strFrom, strTo, strCc, strBcc, _
    strSubject, strBody, strServer, nPort, _
    bIsHtml, arAttachments
 
    Main = 0
 
  WScript.Echo "Done."
End Function

'--------------------------------------------------------------------
' Method
'   SendEmail
'
' Description
'   Sends email using CDO.
'
' Parameters
'   Self-explinatory
'--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub SendEmail _
( _
  ByVal strFrom, _
  ByVal strTo, _
  ByVal strCc, _
  ByVal strBcc, _
  ByVal strSubject, _
  ByVal strBody, _
  ByVal strServer, _
  ByVal nPort, _
  ByVal bIsHtml, _
  ByRef arAttachments _
)
  ' Standard housekeeping
  Dim i, oEmail

  ' Create an e-mail message object
  Set oEmail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")

  ' Fill in the field values
  With oEmail
    .From = strFrom
    .To   = strTo
        
    If Not IsEmptyString(strCc) Then
      .Cc = strCc
    End If
  
    If Not IsEmptyString(strBcc) Then
      .Bcc = strBcc
    End If
  
    .Subject = strSubject
  
    If bIsHtml = True Then
      .HTMLBody = strBody
    Else
      .TextBody = strBody
    End If
  
    If GetArraySize(arAttachments) > 0 Then
      For i = LBound(arAttachments) To UBound(arAttachments)
        .AddAttachment Replace(GetAbsolutePath(arAttachments(i)), "\", "\\" ), "", ""
      Next
    End If

    If Not IsEmptyString(strServer) Then
      With .Configuration.Fields
        .Item( "http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing")  = 2 ' cdoSendUsingPort
        .Item( "http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver") = strServer
        .Item( "http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport") = nPort
        .Update
      End With
    End If
  
    ' Send the message
    .Send
  End With 

  ' Release the e-mail message object
  Set oEmail = Nothing
End Sub

'--------------------------------------------------------------------
' Method
'   Initialize
'
' Description
'   Processes command-line switches and initializes run-time
'   parameters.
'
' Returns
'   True on success; otherwise, False.
'
' Parameters
'   Self-explinatory
'--------------------------------------------------------------------
Function Initialize _
( _
  ByRef strFrom, _
  ByRef strTo, _
  ByRef strCc, _
  ByRef strBcc, _
  ByRef strSubject, _
  ByRef strBody, _
  ByRef strServer, _
  ByRef nPort, _
  ByRef bIsHtml, _
  ByRef bIsFile, _
  ByRef arAttachments _
)
  Initialize = False

  Dim strValue, strErrMsg
 
  strErrMsg = "Missing required parameter: " 
 
  strFrom = GetParamValue(SWITCH_FROM)
  If (IsEmptyString(strFrom)) Then
    WScript.Echo strErrMsg & SWITCH_FROM
    Exit Function
  End If
 
  strTo = GetParamValue(SWITCH_TO)
  If (IsEmptyString(strTo)) Then
    WScript.Echo strErrMsg & SWITCH_TO
    Exit Function
  End If
 
  strCc  = GetParamValue(SWITCH_CC)
  strBcc = GetParamValue(SWITCH_BCC)
 
  strSubject = GetParamValue(SWITCH_SUBJECT)
  If (IsEmptyString(strSubject)) Then
    strSubject = "TEST"
  End If
 
  strBody = GetParamValue(SWITCH_BODY)
  If (IsEmptyString(strBody)) Then
    WScript.Echo strErrMsg & SWITCH_BODY
    Exit Function
  End If

  strServer = GetParamValue(SWITCH_SERVER)

  strValue = GetParamValue(SWITCH_PORT)
  If (IsEmptyString(strValue)) Then
    nPort = 25
  Else
    nPort = CInt(strValue)
  End If

  strValue = GetParamValue(SWITCH_HTML)
  If (IsEmptyString(strValue)) Then
    bIsHtml = False
  Else
    strValue = UCase(strValue)
  
    If (strValue = "YES") Or (strValue = "Y") Or _
      (strValue = "TRUE") Or (strValue = "T") Then
      bIsHtml = True
    Else
      bIsHtml = False
    End If
  End If

  strValue = GetParamValue(SWITCH_FILE)
  If (IsEmptyString(strValue)) Then
    bIsFile = False
  Else
    strValue = UCase(strValue)
  
    If (strValue = "YES") Or (strValue = "Y") Or _
      (strValue = "TRUE") Or (strValue = "T") Then
      bIsFile = True
    Else
      bIsFile = False
    End If
  End If

  arAttachments = GetParamValues(SWITCH_ADD, SWITCH_ADD_DELIMETER)
 
  Initialize = True
End Function

'--------------------------------------------------------------------
' Function
'   ShowHelp
'
' Description
'   Displays help and usage info.
'--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub ShowHelp()
  Dim strMsg          ' help message

  ' We know that user wants to see help, so generate help message.
  strMsg =    _
  "DESCRIPTION:" & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  Sends an email." & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "USAGE:"  & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  cscript " & Wscript.ScriptName &_
  " [/option[:parameter[" & SWITCH_ADD_DELIMETER & "...]]] [...]" & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "OPTIONS:" & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_FROM & vbCrLf &_
  "    Email From address." & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_TO & vbCrLf &_
  "    Email To address. Use comma to separate multiple addresses." & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_CC & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Optional] Email CC address. Use comma to separate multiple addresses." & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_BCC & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Optional] Email BCC address. Use comma to separate multiple addresses." & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_SUBJECT & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Optional] Email Subject line. " & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Default: TEST]" & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_BODY & vbCrLf &_
  "    Plain text, HTML text, or path to file containing email message." & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_SERVER & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Optional] SMTP server." & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Default: localhost]" & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_PORT & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Optional] SMTP server port." & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Default: 25]" & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_HTML & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Optional] Indicates whether email message format is HTML." & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Values: yes|no|y|n|true|false|t|f]" & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Default: no]" & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_FILE & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Optional] Indicates whether the [/" & SWITCH_BODY & "] parameter points to a file." & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Values: yes|no|y|n|true|false|t|f]" & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Default: no]" & vbCrLf &_
  vbCrLf &_
  "  " & SWITCH_ADD & vbCrLf &_
  "    [Optional] Indicates paths to file attachments." & vbCrLf &_
  "    Multiple files must be separated by semicolons."

  Wscript.Echo strMsg
End Sub
</script>
</job>
</package>

I did use the script to complete my project, but I did not thoroughly test it, so if you run into problems, please let me know.

Part V: Maintenance (Building a small business website)

Summary: How to run your small business website.

In this section, I will go over the things you need to be aware of when running your small business website. For other topics, see:

Table of contents

• Part I: Pre-Exploration
• Part II: Exploration
• Part III: Development
• Part IV: Deployment
• Part V: Maintenance

Domain name renewal
Your custom domain registration is not forever. Make sure you do not forget to renew the registration; otherwise, it will expire and will be up for grabs. The worst thing you can do for your online presence is lose your domain name. It also makes sense to take advantage of registration promotions when you can save 15-25% off the renewal fees.

Tools
In addition to the website builder and webmaster tools offered by search engines, you may find the following tools helpful:

• PMetrics: Tracks site statistics and performance.
• Montastic: Will send you an email when your website goes down (similar services).
• CheckSite.us: Checks if site is down for everyone or just you (similar services).

Search-engine optimization (SEO)
Once you publish your site and it stays online for a few months, you will probably start receiving solicitations from third parties for improving your Google ranking, or what is known in the industry as search-engine optimization, or SEO. Should you pay your hard-earned dollars for a promise of getting more visibility in search results? The short answer is: no. For a longer answer read Paul Boag's article The Inconvenient Truth About SEO.

Examples
Finally here is a list of small business websites, that were built using the principles I outlined in this series:

• Autovet (automotive shop; Weebly; free)
• Harbor Senior Care (elderly care; Weebly; free)
• Oleg Oliferuk, DDS (dental practice; Weebly; free)

If you want to share a small business website that was built and hosted on the cheap, leave a comment, and if I find it interesting, I'll add it to the list. When recommending a website, include pertinent info, such as where the site is hosted, if it's free, if not, how much is the annual fee, etc. WARNING: All spam will be deleted without a reply.

Resources
250 Quick Web Design Tips (Part I)
Web Developer Checklist

<< Read Part IV

Part IV: Deployment (Building a small business website)

Summary: How to publish and promote your small business website.

In this section, I will explain how to improve visibility of your new small business website on the web. For other topics, see:

Table of contents

• Part I: Pre-Exploration
• Part II: Exploration
• Part III: Development
• Part IV: Deployment
• Part V: Maintenance

How to publish your website?
Instructions for publishing your website under your custom domain will differ (they will mostly depend on the particular website builder and domain name registrar that you use), e.g.:

• Weebly: Publish to custom domain
• Yola: Publish to custom domain
• Wix: Publish to custom domain (Note: requires a premium package)

After publishing and making sure that you can access your website using the custom domain name, test it to make sure that it looks and works as expected.

Getting the website indexed by search engines
Once your website is visible at your custom domain, submit it for indexing to Google and Microsoft Bing:

• Add a site to Google
• Add a site to Bing

To submit your new website to a search engine for indexing, you will need to create a free Google and Microsoft (Microsoft owns Bing) accounts (unless you already have existing ones). (NOTE: Don't forget to submit the sitemap URL to the search engine.)

Verify your website
Once you add a new website to a search engine you will need to pass the site verification process to confirm legal ownership. Your website builder should have instructions explaining how to verify your website, e.g.:

• Weebly: Verify your website with Google
• Yola: Verify your website with Google

I could not find good instructions explaining how to verify your website hosted at Wix, or how to verify a website hosted at any of the preferred website builder against Bing. If these options are not available, you can just submit your website to the search engine for indexing:

• Submit your website to Bing
• Submit your website to Google

Check if your website is indexed
It may take a few days for your website to appear in the search engine index. To check if your website is indexed, go to the search engine's home page and run a search for site: followed by the domain name of your website, e.g. site:myverysmallbusiness.com. If the search returns any results, it means that the website is indexed. If you do not see your website indexed after a week or so from submission, check the search engine's webmaster tools page for articles explaining common problems.

Set up Google Analytics
Google Analytics will collect site usage and statistics from your website. The steps will vary depending on your hosting platform, e.g:

• Weebly: Google Analytics
• Yola: Google Analitics
• Wix: Google Analytics (requires a premium package)

Add your business to Google and Bing Places for Business
If your business has a physical address, you can advertise it on Google Places for free. The process will be complete after you enter verification code (Google will send it to you via a postcard addressed to your business address or your business phone number). After verification, Google will display your small business information in the search results. You can use Google Places portal to monitor your site statistics, create coupons and promotions, and do other useful things. Do the same on Bing Places for Business.

Create a Facebook (and/or Google+) business page
If you do not have a fundamental opposition to using Facebook (as a marketing tool), create a Facebook page for your small business. Then share it with your friends. Here are some examples of a few Facebook pages created for local small businesses:

• Apple Hill Growers Association (produce)
• DBTunded (automotive)
• Fog Willow Farm (farm, entertainment)
• Pushkin's Bakery (food)

As an alternative (or in addition) to Facebook, you can create a business page at Google+.

Write a blog
This advice is not for everyone, but if you are passionate about your business, can write reasonably well, and are eager to share insights with the world, create a blog and use it to share stories, ideas, tips, and tricks. You can create a free blog at Google's Blogger or WordPress.com (between the two, I'd recommend Blogger because its free version comes with fewer limitation; on the other hand, WordPress.com has a better editor, but it will also display ads to unsuspected viewers). You can also create a blog at most website builders, like the one that hosts your small business website, but I would keep your blog separate from the website in case you decide to move your website somewhere else. It would help if you name your blog after your website (e.g. myverysmallbusiness.blogspot.com). Keeping a blog requires dedication, so if you are not sure if this is something you want to do, then do not bother.

Get people talking
If you have satisfied customers, ask them to post honest reviews on social commentary sites, such as Yelp, Kudzu, Google Places, etc. If you get negative reviews, follow up with the unsatisfied customers so that the issues are resolved and corrections are noted.

<< Read Part III

Read Part V >>

See also:
How to Use Google+ for Business (eBook)
Facebook for Business
50 Ways to Get Your Site Noticed
4 Easy Steps To Promote Your Business On Facebook

Part III: Development (Building a small business website)

Summary: Basics of small business website building.

In this section, I will share some tips that can help you build a small business website. For other topics, see:

Table of contents

• Part I: Pre-Exploration
• Part II: Exploration
• Part III: Development
• Part IV: Deployment
• Part V: Maintenance

At this point, I assume, you have picked a website builder and went through the beginner's tutorials (if these are not enough, there are lots of tutorials -- videos and articles -- available; just search for the name of your website builder and terms such as tutorial, getting started, introduction, beginner's guide, etc, e.g.: weebly beginner's tutorial).

Set up a dedicated email address
I suspect you already have an email address (possibly, more than one). If you only have a personal email address, create a new email account dedicated to your small business, so you can keep all of your business communication separate from your personal life. Just don't create it at your Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Cox, etc. Using an ISP-specific email addresses (whether personal, or group, or business) is never a good idea because you may need to switch to a different ISP and what would you do then? Migrate all your messages? Send new email address to your friends? Modify all your online profiles (at online stores, etc)? You can do this, but why deal with such hassle when you can get a fully functional email box at Google (GMail) for free? If you don't like Google's interface, you can forward all incoming messages to any other address (including your ISP's), so if you change your ISP, then you will just need to update your GMail message forwarding settings. [Note: At the time of writing, GMail was the only email provider that allowed you to forward incoming messages to external -- i.e. non-GMail -- accounts.] To summarize:

• Use GMail.
• Create a separate GMail account for your business (if you already have a Google account, you can link it to your existing Google profile).
• Give your small business GMail account a meaningful name (ideally, it should be named after your business, e.g. myverysmallbusiness@gmail.com or myverysmallbusiness.owner@gmail.com).
• Forward messages from your small business Gmail account to the one that you prefer (in case you have more than one email accounts).

Create a website
When you create a website, give it a meaningful title and address. The address will be temporary, until you're ready to publish it under your own domain name, but it can be helpful if addresses match. For example, if your custom domain name is myverysmallbusiness.com, then, assuming you create your website using Weebly, set the temporary address to myverysmallbusiness.weebly.com. The website title should reflect the name or the nature of your business. In my example, a reasonable title would be My Very Small Business. You can also include keywords that you may expect customers to use when they perform searches or append a location (if you operate locally), such as My Very Small Business: Gadgets and Gizmos in New York City, NY (this may help your website get better ranking). Just don't make the title too long.

Pick a website template
When picking a website template you need to think about aesthetics (it should look nice), performance (it must load fast), and function (it must support the layout and navigation needs). Here are a few rules of thumb:

• Avoid overly flashy templates. Lots of graphics and big pictures generally take longer to load.
• Less is more. Try picking a template with fewer elements. It may be easier to customize and tweak than a more complex template.
• Use bigger font. If the website builder or specific template does not allow font customization, make sure that the font size is big enough. With population aging, bigger fonts will make your site more pleasing to more viewers.
• Think cross-browser. See how the template looks in different web browsers. At the very least, try it in Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari.
• No splash page. Your website should launch at the home page with useful information, not a useless animation, invitation to click the only link, or similar silliness.
• Keep it quiet. Interaction with your website should be absolutely quiet. This means no "cool" sounds when user clicks links, flips pages, no greeting audio on the home page, et.
• No autoplay. If you decide to embed video or audio, make sure it does not start to play automatically (the user must click the Play button to get it going).

If you see a website (maybe competitor's or unrelated) which design you really like, do not copy it. It's good to incorporate other people's ideas, but it's bad to make exact replicas (and it can be illegal, too).

Website structure
At the very least, your website must have the following pages:

• Home: This is your introduction page. Use it to briefly describe your business and offer the information that would be useful to a potential customer. Don't make it too wordy.
• Contact: Here you specify all the ways a customer can reach you: phone, fax, email, address. If you are operating a brick and mortar shop, include a map with a link to driving directions.
• Portfolio*: If you have pictures to demonstrate your previous works or items on sale, put their photos on a separate page. This is a personal preference, but I would not use a slide show to display your work; I would use a photo gallery instead. The photo gallery will allow your customers to find what they look for quicker. If you have a lot of photos you want to share or if you continuously update them, I would keep a dozen or so of your best works on the website and store the rest at a different photo hosting site, such as Flickr or Picasa; then add a link to your web albums at the photo hosting site. (* This is not the best name for the page, so try using something else that fits better for your purpose, such as Gallery, Photos, etc.)
• Services: If you offer fixed-price services, add a page that lists them. If you offer promotions or coupons, include this information as well (it can go to a separate page).
• Resources: If you have links to useful information that you think can be helpful to your customers (even if they never contact you), include them in this page. Be a good citizen regardless of business impact (although, this can indirectly help you, too).
• About: Use this page to offer a more detailed overview of your business. Specify when your business has been lunched and where it operates. List the terms of your workers compensation insurance. Include your business or permit license number. Use links to sources that customers can use to verify the information.

Web graphics
I'd recommend that at the first draft of your small business website, you do not put any pictures on the web pages (unless they are part of the template). Try to make it look nice without any graphics. Then add graphics but try to limit it to one primary graphics file per page (not counting smaller images, such as thumbnails or logos). Of course, you can break this rule if you have a valid reason.

Where to get graphics?
It is best to use your own graphics files. If you operate a brick and mortar business, you can take a photo of your shop. You may also want to display a photo of yourself and/or your employees and partners (make sure you get their permission in advance). If you include your business' history in the About page, photos from the past (most likely scanned) can make the information more interesting. When using your own images, make sure you optimize them for the web (e.g. trim white space, reduce picture dimensions, set JPEG quality to 80%).

Stock photos
It gets a bit tricky if you want to use stock photos. The basic rule is: do not copy photos from other sites (or link to them) unless you are absolutely sure that you will not violate the copyright laws (in most cases, you would). Some website builders (such as Weebly) allow you to easily search for and embed images in your web pages. You can also buy stock photos from such sites as iStockPhoto or get some for free from stock.xchng. You can also search for free images at GettyImages, Flickr, Google, or Creative Commons. Just make sure that you follow the terms of use for the particular license type (i.e. don't forget to include attribution when needed).

Writing for the web
When you add text to a web page, keep in mind the following rules. First, remember that people do not read business websites; they scan them for keywords and click the very first link that vaguely resembles a match. Therefore, do not write a composition. Use lists, short phrases, and brief paragraphs. Eliminate all unnecessary words. After your first draft, see if you can reduce the amount of text by half. Do it. Then try reducing what is left by half again. When you write text for a web page, use the exact combinations of keywords that you expect your potential customers to search for. This will help you get better page ranking.

Layout
When it comes to the web page layout, the simpler, the better. Use a simple layout and simple content. Don't try to impress people with sophistication (unless this is the nature of your business). Keep it minimal, keep it simple. Limit styles to the minimum. You should use at most 3 font sizes (one for headings, one for paragraphs, one for small print) and two font faces (one for headings and another for everything else).

Getting better
If you are a novice building your very first website, here are some books that can help you get better. If you were to get just one book on the topic, I'd recommend Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (this is a short and entertaining book, which I finished in a couple of evenings). The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams is a good primer that will help you understand the basic design principles.
Final touches
Do not publish your website (to your custom domain) until it's ready. If you publish a half-baked site, you will be penalized by search engines. When working on your website, and especially when making lots of changes, leave it for a few days and then visit it again. Taking a break from your website will give you a better perspective and help you catch the problems with a fresh eye. Before publishing the site, show it to someone and ask for an honest feedback. It would be helpful to find someone with background in web design and/or web development, but even without it, having more people to check out your work will help you find the things that you have missed. Also, make sure that you check the following:

• Verify that the site works in all major web browsers (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari).
• Test it using a smart phone and/or a portable/mobile device, such as a tablet.
• Inspect all content: text (make sure there are no error or typos), images, links (click on every link to see if it points to the right location), downloads (if you host any files, such as PDF documents).

Once you have reviewed and tested your website, you should be ready to publish it.

<< Read Part II

Read Part IV >>

See also:
How to keep your text clean
10 Things Every Small-Business Website Needs
How To Make A Website - Free Tutorial
How to use photography in web design

Part II: Exploration (Building a small business website)

Summary: Basic things you need to do when building a small business website.

In this section, I will describe the basic aspects of building a small business website. For other topics, see:

Table of contents

• Part I: Pre-Exploration
• Part II: Exploration
• Part III: Development
• Part IV: Deployment
• Part V: Maintenance

How to pick a platform?
If you decide to build a website for a small business, you need to pick a platform or technology which you will use. The most obvious options include:

• Build it from scratch
  If you are familiar with programming and feel comfortable around web technologies such as PHP, ASP.NET, or Ruby on Rails, you can try building your small business website from scratch, but in most cases and for most people, this would be the least recommended approach. Without getting into the gory details, take my word: don't even think about it.
• Create a Facebook page
  In case you did not know, you can create a Facebook page for a small business website (see these examples). It will not cost you any money (at least, at this time, Facebook does not charge for hosting small business pages). While having a Facebook page is an excellent idea (and I'll come back to it in an upcoming post), I would not recommend Facebook as a primary website for a number of reasons. For example, it will not allow you to have your own domain address, which may make it harder for customers to find you. Your website's Google ranking will also suffer.
• Use a blogging engine
  Currently, both Google's Blogger and WordPress.com allow you to create static pages for you website. It's a nice idea, but the last time I checked, the features were very limited, and the website templates looked really unprofessional. I hope that these services improve with time because they definitely have potential, but for now, I would skip them. Another alternative would be to use a self-hosted version of WordPress.org, but this option belongs to the next category of content management systems (CMS).
• Use content management system (CMS)
  Popular CMS options include: Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress (see comparison of these three platforms). This is another option for tech-savvy users and unless you have already done this before or plan to make it a carrier skill, I would not recommend it. Keep in mind that you will need to find a hosting company that supports the CMS of your choice (charges normally start around $5/month).
• Use a website builder
  A website builder allows you to build a website using available templates. You pick a template and start adding pages. You can customize the layout of each page, although customization options are limited to the widgets that the website builder supports. Some website builders charge fees, while others are free.

I think that for a typical small business owner, a website builder is the best option for a number of reasons.

Why use a website builder?
Many reasons, such as:

• It's cheap
  If you do not mind a couple of minor limitations, you can host your website for free. You can also upgrade to a fee-based hosting package (with no limitations), most of which are not terribly expensive.
• You're the boss
  Once you get a website, you will not depend on anyone and can do changes any time you want. No need to call or email anyone, and wait for the change.
• Quick setup
  You can get a few pages done in (literally) a few minutes. Sure, they will probably not look very professional, but once you find a more-or-less decent template and make a few tweaks, they can look no worse than an average web page you find online.
• Easy to maintain
  I'm not gonna lie: initial setup of the site will take some time and effort to get a semi-professional look, but once done, it should be really easy to make changes (assuming that you do not want to do a major redesign).
• Limited technical knowledge is needed
  Some understanding of basic HTML and web design will definitely be helpful, but you don't need to be a technical guru to build and maintain the site and your sense of aesthetics will be more important than technical skills.
• Self-hosted
  Since website builders also provide hosting, you don't have to look for a hosting company.
• Self-contained
  You will not need any tools (other than a web browser) to build your website. No need to keep a local project and deal with backups, etc. Your website's control panel will be available from anywhere.
• Optimized for mobile
  Most website builders automatically optimize your web pages for mobile browsers clients, such as iPhone or iPad.

However, you must be realistic and understand that all website builders have limitations. The major limitation is that your design capabilities are constrained by the limitations of the available templates, page widgets, and page layouts. And a typical selection of templates is rather small (especially if you count multiple versions of the same template with different color schemes as one). Majority of templates I've seen look like they were put together for a high school project in the late 90's. But you should be able to find one or two better templates. I believe that most small business websites can live with these limitations.

Which website builder to choose?
My criteria for choosing a website builder includes the following:

1. Must offer a free hosting package with few limitations.
2. Free package should not contain banner ads.
3. Free package should not have silly bandwidth restrictions (e.g. 1,000 page views and then it will die).
4. Free package must allow custom domains.
5. A premium package must be reasonably priced (I'd say $120 or less/year).
6. Website must be built as regular HTML (must not be Flash-based).

Currently, these requirements limit my choices to the following options:

• Google sites
• Weebly
• Wix
• Yola

I played with Google Sites just a little bit, but did not like what I saw: the site template looked really basic, very amateurish. Unless Google adds features and makes the site template more visually pleasing, I'd stay away from it.

Wix used to produce Flash-based websites, but they stopped this silliness a while ago, so it's worth checking out. (NOTE: It looks like Wix requires you to purchase a premium support package to use custom domains, which is significant limitation.) I have more intimate experience with Yola and Weebly, and at this time, I prefer Weebly, although Yola keeps adding improvements, so I'd recommend both of them (for a detailed comparison between the two, see my Free web site builders: Weebly vs. Yola post).

It's not going to cost you anything (other than time) to create a website, so register for each service, poke around, and see which one you like best. Here are some tutorials, which can help you get started (you can find more by googling terms such as "getting started Yola" or "beginner's guide Wix" or "tutorial Weebly"):

• Yola tutorials: Getting started (and more)
• Beginner's Guide to Weebly
• Getting started with Wix.com

For the rest of this discussion, I'll assume that you will build your small business website with the help of one of the free website builders. I'll make my recommendations generic enough to apply to either service.

Do I need a domain name?
Regardless of where you host your small business website, you will need a domain name (i.e. unique web address by which your site will be known on the internet, such as myverysmallbusiness.com). Technically, while you're playing with the website builder, you don't really need a domain name (your website can be tested and even published as a subdomain of the website builder, such as myverysmallbusiness.weebly.com), but once your site goes public, you better have your own domain. It will cost you very little, make your website more professional, and help you in future, e.g. if you decide to migrate your site to a new host.

How to pick a good domain name?
Your domain name should ideally be named after the registered name of your business, but since small business names are not unique, it's likely that the name is already taken either бы a functioning website or simply reserved for future use (some people buy the whole ranges of domain names hoping to resell them later for more money). If your desired domain name is already taken, don't get discouraged. First, check if the same name is available under a different top-level domain (TLD), e.g. myverysmallbusiness.com may be taken, but myverysmallbusiness.biz is not. If the name is not available under any desired TLD, try improvising:

• Use a more (or less) formal name, e.g. myverysmallbusinessllc.com, or myverysmallbusinessinc.com.
• Add name of the city or county to the name, e.g. myverysmallbusinessNYC.com.
• Instead of (or in addition to) using the name of your business, try describing the nature of your business using the keywords by which you want the potential customers to find you online. For example, if you operate a printing business, and you want a link to your web by searching for "custom signs posters", try something like customsigns.com, customposters.com, customsignsposters.com, or signspostersetc.com.

Keep in mind that, while it's desirable, your website's domain name does not necessarily have to match the registered name of your business. Just make sure that it's descriptive and easy to spell (try spelling it out for an imaginary customer). Never use uncommon abbreviations. Avoid punctuation (unless the name of your business contains special characters -- such as dashes -- stick with alpha-numeric characters).

Which TLD to use: .com, .net, .org, .biz, etc?
If you are running a non-profit, start with .org. The best option for everybody else is .com. If .com is not available, try .biz (keep in mind that domain name registration for .biz is more expensive by a couple of bucks per year). If neither option is available, try .net. Although, there are other TLDs available, I would be very cautious using them because they are not common (they may sound suspicious to your customers).

Where to register a domain name?
A service that allows you to register a domain name is called a domain name registrar. Most registrars will let you purchase the first year registration at a steep discount (such as 99 cents or $1.99). Before you fall for the first year promotion, check the regular price; otherwise, you may find yourself in a trap similar to the recent Yahoo! scam (Yahoo! have been offering a very low first year registration fee, but at some point it tripled the renewal fees for the existing customers). It is possible to transfer your domain name registration from one registrar to another, but it involves a bit of a hassle, which may not be worth a few bucks you're planning to save. So if you have no reason to chose a particular registrar, start with GoDaddy. It offers frequent promotions, but even the regular prices are reasonable.

IMPORTANT: Most website builders allow you to purchase a custom domain name through them. Do not fall for this offer! For one, their fees are normally higher than you would get from an external domain name registrar. Also, at some point, you may want to move your website to a different website builder or a brand new hosting provider, so having your domain name registered elsewhere would eliminate one more hassle in the process.

How much will I have to spend?
At the very minimum, your costs will be limited to the cost of domain name registration (and the corresponding fees). For a typical domain this would amount to about $15 per year. In many cases, the first year can cost you close to $1. When you are about to renew the registration, check if the registrar offers any coupons or promotions (notice that promotions for the first time registration normally do not apply to renewals). Keep in mind that when you register a domain name, the personal information you submit will become public. If you want to protect your privacy, opt for a private domain registration that most registrars offer for a few extra bucks (normally, less than $10). Registrars also offer a whole range of other add-on services, but you will most likely not ever need them.

Now, as I have mentioned, I assume that you will be using a free version of the website builder. If you decide to upgrade to a fee-based package, it will be extra cost. I would not recommend doing this immediately. Try staying on the free version for a couple of years and see how it works out for you. If you find the limitations of the free package burdensome, consider upgrading. A fee-based package will give you some bonuses. For example, in the case of Weebly, you will be able to remove the sponsorship footer (it's rather unobtrusive, though) and use a favicon.

So, should you upgrade or not? Here is my logic. A typical web hosting service fee starts somewhere around $5 per month (this comes to $60 per year plus any processing fees). So if an upgraded package costs less $100 or so, why not help out the company that offers you a valuable service? Help the business and bring good karma. But if the cost of the premium package is significantly higher, or if you do not mind living with the limitations of the free hosting package, or if you are in dire straights and are counting every dollar, be free.

<< Read Part I

Read Part III >>

See also:
Build a Website for Your Small Business: 5 DIY Services
How Much Does A Small Business Website Cost in 2013?
Five Free Website Builders
A Web Presence Without a Website