Don't overlook the opportunity to offer site sponsorship(s) to your biggest supporters, perhaps a local Insurance Company, an Agency or disaster repair company. The goodwill and close association with community-spirited organizations such as yours speaks well for members of the corporate community. This win-win situation offers a way for you to offer them another point of contact from your Home Page on the Internet and helps you with the costs of maintaining a Web site

Each plan includes the purchase of an Internet Domain name for your organization. Most non-profits use the .ORG(anization) Top Level Domain (TLD) for their name (naiw.org e.g.).

With the millions of Internet Domains online now, it can be difficult finding a name for a commercial (.COM) site, it's a little easier with .ORG. You may want to review the name you choose with your members as it will be yours forever. The shorter it is the easier it will be for people to enter it in their browser. Many will have 'aiw' someplace in their name (Charlotte, NC is caiw.org e.g.); you're restricted to the use of the alphabet, numbers and the dash.

We'd recommend you try to find a name in the .ORG TLD first, then .COM, then .US. We use GoDaddy for managing our Domain Names, you may want to visit them first and search for available names.

Each Internet Domain must have 4 contacts listed in the Domain Name System (DNS) for public view (registrant, administrator, billing, technical); see the privacy section below.

Although we cannot guarantee response time, all your normal requests to update information on your Web site will be completed within 1 business day. Emergency requests (event time change, meeting location change, cancellations e.g.) will be expedited, typically within 1-2 business hours. Our normal business hours are 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Eastern time.

You are responsible for providing fresh content for your Web site and we include 1 hour each month for this service. Although you will find members enthused about starting a Web site, that enthusiasm soon wanes and you may find it difficult involving the membership in submitting new or timely material. The Web site and its content should be allotted time in both your board and membership meetings.

Most organizations publish one on a regular basis (monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly e.g.) and now you can publish yours on the Web. A good newsletter can be an asset to your organization, demonstrating your commitment to the community, attracting new members and sponsors for your fund-raising events.

If you want your newsletter in the public area of the Web and you've been publishing personal information (names, telephones, addresses e.g.) or confidential information (financial e.g.) in your newsletter we recommend you don't include that information in the Web version (see below). If you're on the Advanced Plan, you may publish the personal and confidential information in your Members Only private area of your Web.

We would recommend you publish your Web newsletter in Adobe PDF format. This universal document format allows everyone to read your newsletter even when they don't have the application installed you may have used to produce the original (Microsoft Word e.g.). If you're unable to produce a PDF version for the Web but would like to, we could do this for you for a small fee. Note there are free PDF creation tools available on the Web, you will find one here.

As valuable as the Internet is for finding resources and information, it's also turning into a 'Wild West' -type environment where personal information is the target of the 'bad guys'. We recommend you limit the personal and contact information you do provide publicly to that necessary to properly advertise your presence.

If you currently use someone's home or business address for your organization's mail address, you may want to consider using a Post Office box (inexpensive) or a commercial mail drop (The UPS Store e.g.).

We do not recommend publishing any email addresses at all on the site, this includes within your newsletter. We setup email aliases for your organization and automatically link your Officers and Committee Chairpersons real email to these aliases (president at your domain.com e.g.). This precludes the Internet 'robots and spiders' from harvesting your real email for their next SPAM assault.

If you know of instances where your email address(es) are currently published on the Internet, you should request they be removed or be republished in an image (much more difficult to harvest). Of course, any person reading your information in a Browser would be able to use it as they wished.

When you acquire your Internet Domain name, you must provide contact information for the Domain Name System (DNS) . Regulations require the information be accurate; it's also publicly available. The SPAMmers and scammers of the Internet troll the DNS system for email and address information. We recommend you use a PO Box or mail drop for this address and an email alias. You may also choose to have us manage this task for you with our contact information, there is no charge for this.

Web templates are pre-designed Web sites with generic information. Many of today's talented Web designers share their expertise by offering their creations to the Internet community.

Designing a new Web site from scratch is usually quite expensive. It requires artistic skills and the right software tools. The more elaborate the look of the site, the more time it takes, the more expensive it is. Prices in the hundreds or thousands of dollars are common.

Starting a new Web site with a template is relatively inexpensive. Most of the work required is just replacing the boiler-plate text in the model with your live data and replacing any images with your own.

We only offer Web sites based on templates. The template sources we've selected offer a varied set and we think most organizations will be able to find one they like. Each template presents a certain style and has a color theme. If you find a template style you like but would prefer a different color we can usually change the coloring to one you like. Most of the templates are in the $20 - $50 range but many are also offered for free. You select the template and we customize it for you.

If you don't find a template you like, contact us and we'll work with you.

Our templates page

Commercial Web sites on the Internet will spend a lot of money and time tweaking their Web site so Search Engines will rank their pages high. Their success or lack of it when people search can have significant impact on the bottom line. If your company sells picture frames and you have some unique offerings, you would want your site to show up in the first page or two of a search engine's results page. If you're selling the same picture frames as everyone else, it would be much more difficult to distinguish your site from the hundreds of others with the same inventory.

Local organizations have it a little easier as their 'offerings' are usually more focused. For NAIW Local associations a searcher would be looking for insurance-related sites with continuing education, monthly meetings, newsletters etc. in your geographic area.

It's a commonly accepted posit that over 70% of all Web site visits are from the results of a search engine link.

Most SEO (Search Engine Optimization) specialists would be hard-pressed to agree on many things but one they would agree on is CONTENT. It's very important the content of each of your Web pages is relevant and timely.

If you choose to manage your Internet Domain name yourself, you should read this. If we're managing it for you, skip it.

Today, there are many unscrupulous companies trolling the Internet with various scams (and making BIG money). A number of companies send out hundreds of thousands of invoice-appearing notices each month to Domain name owners. Because you will be registering a Domain name when you sign up for a plan with us, you may be targeted as a potential victim.

One you should be aware of involves your receiving in the mail what appears to be an invoice for your Website listing or an expiration notice. The notice looks like an invoice by design and if you don't read the entire content you may fall victim to their ploy. Most of them will indicate someplace it's not a bill but a solicitation but the visibility of this notice is not always obvious (it's supposed to be per US Postal regulations).

If you were to perform a search on the Internet for the company (or their Website) name, you will find many newsgroup postings regarding these companies with questionable business practices. On Google, enter their name inside quotation marks ("some company name") for best results. Or, try entering all these words in your favorite search engine: invoice scams internet domain name search engine

You will also find these companies are not listed in the White Pages or Yellow Pages of the city they use for their address nor will Directory Assistance be able to locate them. They almost all use mail drop addresses and don't provide phone numbers. None of them use Post Office boxes as this would put them under the scrutiny of the US Postal Service.

Another recent ploy generated from trolling the DNS System is manifested in an email to the DNS Billing contact (see Your Domain Name above) reminding them to renew their expiring Domain. They charge an exorbitant $79.95 to renew a .com Domain that typically cost less than $10 per year from your own Registrar. They neglect to notify you they're NOT your Registrar and throw in a little 'scare tactic' (If you do not wish to use your domain after the due date for renewal, you may disregard this e-mail). See a sample of a recent email we received here.

While you're hosting with us, we will pay for the renewal of your Domain name at GoDaddy, our Registrar. If you receive any billing notices in the mail or email regarding the expiration of your Domain while you're hosting with us, please contact us immediately.