You should have hired a professional.

I can't even tell you how many of my clients come to me and have no idea how to access their domain, and to get access to it from their current web company becomes a long and tedious nightmare.

Your company name and contact information should be the main information listed for your domain!

Business cards, marketing materials, sometimes vehicles have your domain name on them, you loose your domain name and a lot of money goes down the drain.

If the company that does have control of your domain name goes out of business, or you have a falling out with them or they just simply stop replying to your emails, this could spell big trouble. Basically if you don't have control of your domain name you are at the mercy of the company that does, and whoever has login access to the domain name controls it.

Flash websites are costly to develop and maintain, they have no value to search engines and the software to build them is costly as well. You will need a specialized web developer to build these type of sites. If you are a graphic artist or a company that is artistic by all means, but you will pay and pay and pay again when you have a flash website.

Be vary careful who you hire to create your website, I actually had a client come to me because they needed some edits done to their site and their current company kept putting them off and over a year had gone by and they wanted to edit their site.

I tried to get in touch with that company and they told me that this client didn't own their website, well I said what???? They paid you for the website... what do you mean they don't own the site, he said it would have cost them more to own their site, quite frankly I was dumb founded.

No Explanation

I asked did you tell them in the beginning in order to own their website they would have to pay more, he said no, I asked him at anytime did you ever tell them that they didn't own their website if you built it, of course the answer was no, this person was grasping at straws and wanted to extort some money out of his client, because he knew the client was serious about having something done.

There was never anything in their agreement that said they didn't own it and he wasn't giving them access to the site, he clearly and honestly told me that he never informed them of this, so we simply copied the website and hosted it on Around KW's servers, I emailed him and informed him that they were no longer hosting with him and that when the year term was up for their hosting he could delete the site off his server, this started another battle, we never even asked for a refund of the 4 months hosting that wasn't going to be used.

Why did it have to be that hard for that client to simply update their site, they gave him the chance to do it, he put them off, then when they wanted some action he tried to extort them, and put up road blocks at every turn.

I have many other stories about clients trying to get information out of their current companies just to have work done on THEIR WEBSITE, so be very careful who you choose to build your site, get all the information upfront about what is yours how to access it and how the edit process works. Make sure that they are a registered company that has a proven track record, observe how their customer service works by phoning a few times and make sure you can actually phone them and speak to someone.

2. SEARCH ENGINE PLACEMENT
   Search engine placement is the only reason to have a website built, our clients are at the top of the search engines not by their "Company Name" but by there product or service, after all when someone is searching the web they don't know your company name, they DO know what product or service they want.

Around Kitchener Waterloo has achieved the highest search engine placement for all our clients. Why have a website if no-one but you and your developer knows how to get to it.

Search courier logistics hauling Ontario
Yahoo - 1 through 6 are all our clients or our sites
Google - 1 through 6 are all our clients or our sites

Search free business directory waterloo
Around KW our site
Google or Yahoo the placement is Number 1

Search kitchener waterloo web hosting or kitchener waterloo hosting
Our site is number 1 in google and yahoo

It is the same as having your website built but a lot more expensive $$$$$ and it is a onetime or package deal for so many slots. Remember your website is for life and it is 24/7 as long as you pay the hosting and domain renewal every year which is usually under $200.00 a YEAR.

Make this slick sales person work for your business, have him give you concrete examples of business gained by his type of advertising... I mean have him show you a company that has made cold hard cash $$$ from the type of advertising they are trying to sell you. Ask to speak with some of the businesses advertising with them. You would get a reference from a contractor why not get a reference from and advertiser alternative advertising is a one off it is played then done or on paper then gone.

Chad may be costing you money you don't need to spend.

Ok first off think about this:

• Does Chad have your business sales numbers NO
• Has Chad looked at your web stats NO
• Is Chad in the web design business NO
• Is Chad just trying to sell you more options to make himself more money YES
• Is Chad there to sell you a website NO
• Does Chad know what it takes to build an effective website - I am guessing not.
• Is Chad there to sell you...say radio, newspaper or local publications YES

Tell Chad to stick to what he does best and keep your money in your pocket not Chad's.

If you are in doubt about your current website, and unless the advertising company you are dealing with also builds websites, please give a few website developers a call to see if there is a general consensus about your site. I have had clients come to me and they have needed nothing more than a bit of clean up and a few fixes to their website and these were billed on a hourly rate. So why were they told by other companies that they needed a whole new site? This would have cost them money that they did not needed to spend.

The client below commenting about my service came to me with a website, he had been quoted outrageous prices advised his site was no good, he needed a redo, the code was awful... and it wasn't! I advised him to keep the current site, just clean up the code, do a few design fixes and take an interest in his site and he did, he use to pay thousands of dollars a year to industrial advertising directories, now his site generates more leads than those directories ever did, please read his comment below.