MWS Newsletter Volume 2: Issue 1

Complete Archives and Subscription Information

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THE IMPORTANCE OF REGULAR MAINTENANCE

A general rule of thumb for homeowners is that you should expect to spend 1% of the value of your house each year for maintenance. Without regular
maintenance, a building gradually falls into a state where its value suffers
and extensive repairs are needed.

Your Web site also requires regular maintenance in order to remain
effective. In the last three years, however, we've seen numerous Web sites
fall into disrepair as a result of the poor economy and a focus on merely
surviving. Whether or not the economy is now on the rebound is still
debatable. If you're among those who have been neglecting your Web site,
however, now is absolutely the time to fix it.

If you make a list of your company's reasons for having a Web site, you'll
find more often than not that having out of date or stale information on
your site is worse than not having a Web site at all. For example, if part
of the reason you have a Web site is to showcase news about your company,
how do you think it looks to the world if the most recent news item on your
site is from 2001? What do you assume when you see a company with a Web site
that has "copyright 2001" at the bottom of every page?

If your company sells products, takes employment applications, or
communicates with clients through your Web site, lack of maintenance is an
even larger problem. Your Web site is the only way that thousands of
potential customers will learn about your products or services. If your site
isn't up-to-date, who knows how many people are leaving your site every day
because they think you're no longer in business. Even if only 10 people
visit your Web site each day, what is the potential cost to your company if
those visitors get the impression that your company has gone out of
business?

From the beginning, Minnick Web Services has had a strong emphasis on Web
site maintenance. During the boom of the late 90s and 2000 we preferred to
develop long-term maintenance relationships with our clients rather than
only taking on more glamorous and higher-margin new site design work as most
firms did. In the last 3 years, as thousands of Web development firms have
gone out of business, we've survived, and actually doubled the size of our
company, because of our base of loyal and happy maintenance clients.

In the years that we've been in business, we've grown and expanded our
services considerably to include Web hosting, programming, multimedia
production, editorial services, and e-book development in addition to Web
design and maintenance services. Our primary focus, however, is still on
developing long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with our clients.

NEW SITE EVALUATION SERVICE

I am pleased to announce that Minnick Web Services now offers a Web site
evaluation service. For $150, we'll prepare a 4-page analysis of your
current Web site. We'll also give you recommendations for improving your
site for 2004 and simplifying maintenance for the future. To order this
service for your site, please visit http://www.minnickweb.com/webeval.html.

If your Web site has fallen into disrepair, or if you find yourself unable
to locate the person who initially designed your site, please contact us to
find out about our site evaluation, maintenance, site overhaul, and site
redesign services.

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Chris Minnick
Minnick Web Services
www.minnickweb.com
www.ebookhost.com
Phone: 916-551-1453
Fax: 916-551-1454

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FUTURE ISSUE PREVIEW:

Future issues of the Minnick Web Services newsletter will cover topics such as:

Understanding Web site Stats
Basics of Web Design
Usability
Accessibility
Important New Web Technologies
Evaluating New Web Technologies
How Search Engines Work
Search Engine Optimization

If you would like to suggest a topic for a future newsletter issue, please send mail to newsletter@minnickweb.com

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NOTICE:

You are receiving this email because you signed up for it at http://www.minnickweb.com, or because you are a client of Minnick Web Services. If you have questions or comments on anything in this newsletter, or if you'd like to speak with someone at Minnick Web Services about your Web site, please contact us for additional information and contact information.

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