Media Promotion & Marketing

• putting up a website
  
  • get an ISP (Internet Service Provider)
    most offer something like: full Internet access, 20 MB Home Directory Space and throughput of up to 200 MB/Day for $ 30 / month. More disk space, throughput and hosting for more dynamic and complex websites costs incrementally more.
    
    
  • register your own domain name www.yourproductioncompany.com
    cost of domains is $ 50 per year, but you pay for 2 years up front. Commercial ISPs will charge you anywhere from $30 to $200 to register names for you, but if you have IP numbers for the servers you intend to use to host your domain, you can do it yourself for free directly on the Web, see: http://rs.internic.net/help/templates.html
    
    
  • build your own webpage or website
    Do your own HTML, graphics production, design and lay-out. Many print resources are available in bookstores. For example, my favorite HTML book is:
    
    "Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 3.2 in a week" (3rd Edition, 1996), by Laura Lemay, Sams.net Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana. (available through http://www.amazon.com/
    
    In addition, many universities and media production organizations are offering classes in all aspects of Web publishing and production. Some examples:
    
    
    • San Francisco State Multimedia Studies Program
      http://www.cel.sfsu.edu/msp/
      MSP Online offers a few online courses
      
      
    • UCLA's Center for the Digital Arts
      http://www.cda.ucla.edu/
    
    
    
  • hire some help
    Individual freelancers can be hired to build your webpage. Find interns through your local college and find Web professionals on the Net. For example, Bay Area folks can post freelance job listings to Criag's List (http://www.cnewmark.com/). Those with a larger budget, might wish to hire a Web development, or Web production, firm. Search for those terms in Yahoo's (www.yahoo.com) regional directories to find a Web Studio in your area.
  
  
  
• maintaining a website
  successful websites are living, breathing places that need to be updated regularly. Even pages that are meant to be a basic "online yellow page ad" need to be "groomed" and changed periodically as you have new information, new awards, endorsements etc. Sites that aim to provide a resource and to build up a community of interest should be sure to budget sufficient time and money for on-going updates and maintenance.
  
  
  • promoting your site
    Even if you build it, they will still only come if they:
    
    (a) know about your site
    (b) know your site's address (URL)
    
    
    
  • Push versus Pull
    a website can present a great deal of information about your title relatively cheaply. Think of it as a repository, a distribution point for supporting material (brochures, audio and video clips, study guides etc.) and send out pointers to this repository in as many different ways as possible, including, but not limited to:
    
    
    • traditional print mailings (snail mail)
    • mailing lists, list serves, email (put your URL in your .sig file)
    • press releases, stationary, stickers: get your URL out there!
    • getting your site listed with major and regional search engines
    • getting links to your site from other appropriate sites
    
    
    connection to consumer community (audience & market)
  • answering email queries
  • participating in discussion boards and mailing lists
  • online market research (hits, user-tracking, mail-in forms)
  • putting your contact information out there

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