Dotcom SA Website Services

Dotcom SA is responsible for numerous online business initiatives within the South African internet market place. For example www.girlsbestfriend.co.za - South Africa's leading online diamond trading site, with up to 50% savings on retail prices, this site has grown dramatically since its inception in 2001. (then trading as Diamonds SA) Girls Best Friend is linked to another of our websites www.veilandgarter.co.za. This website caters to the general public who are searching for wedding service providers and information pertaining to marriage in South Africa. The success of this site cumulated in it becoming the exclusive wedding content provider on www.ananzi.co.za (South Africas Leading Search Engine)

A brief overview of Website Services & Charges
Introduction
To make a web site visible to people surfing the Internet, you must have an address for them to visit. An Internet address is commonly called a domain name. It's like the address of a building a business operates from, - if you don't have an address, then nobody can find you! However if your easy to find, you can sell more products.

Domain names generally take the form www.businessname.co.za for South African business, and www.businessname.com for the United States or products / services offered globally. A .co.za domain suggests a local presence, whilst a .com domain name normally suggests an international presence.

Domain Name Registrations & transfers.
A once-off payment is required to register a domain name. Domain name registration in SA is controlled by an organization called Uniforum - the South African domain authority. Registry for all internet Domain names ending in .co.za and provides a public service for the .co.za namespace on behalf of the Internet community. By registering a .co.za domain name, you enter into a contract of registration with Uniforum SA on the following terms and conditions http://co.za/annexure.html. Domain Name registrations cost around R250.00 ex vat. Use the facility at the top-right of the page to check domain names for availability.
Dotcom SA handles all admin and technicalities with Uniforum SA on their clients' behalf - all admin costs are included in the once-off registration fee.

Dotcom SA will handle all the admin with Uniforum SA when transferring your existing domains to their servers for hosting, and completely free of charge too.

Domain Name Renewal
After the initial period you will need to pay for your domain name to be renewed for any further period. Domain name renewals cost around R90.00 ex vat per annum. Once again, all admin will be handled on behalf of the client, and admin fees are included in the renewal fee.

Domain Name Hosting
Once you have registered your domain name, it will need to be set up on a server and managed by someone - this is called domain name hosting. Hosting is really the directing of visitors to your domain. In this way, when someone types in your domain name, they are directed to the server that hosts your web site (which could be anywhere in the world). Service providers, like Dotcom SA, ensures traffic meant for your website gets there.

Website Hosting
A website consists of numerous types of script and markup and multimedia files, and service providers will charge you for storing these files on their servers and allowing access to them. Much like renting a shop on a monthly basis. So, once you have a domain name, and a service provider to manage it, you will then need to actually have some "server space" for your website to reside on.
Website hosting charges vary. A standard website will cost from R150 – R250.00 ex vat each month. This amount may increase should your website contain vast amounts of information or attached databases. Dotcom SA hosting contract start from R250.00 ex vat per month for small to medium sized business web solutions, click here to enquire about hosting your website with Dotcom SA.

Website Design
You will have seen and used some easy-to-use, creative special and aesthetically pleasing websites. It's no surprise to learn that they are beautiful because, just like a beautiful painting, brochure or building, someone took the time and effort to design them.
Website design is very skilful work because designers must work with colour, text, images, photographs, movement, sound and corporate image to produce a look that is both pleasing and practical. Graphic design quite is time consuming and requires a great deal of experience to produce the correct type of design for the type of business. Website designers must obey the rules of art (line, colour and focal point), design (position, construction and ease of navigation) and typesetting (grid, content and layout). On occasion it's a bit like making a short documentary film!
Graphic design costs are relative to the complexity of the design.

Website Development
Once the design is complete, the website must then be programmed and saved into files that can be stored on a server. These files must also be functional & practical - that pretty menu must now work when people click on it! Website development is skilled work and will often require a team skilled in a range of programming & markup languages such as HTML, XML, XSL, Javascript, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET and CGI to name but a few.
Website development is usually charged on an hourly basis. So be smart, and choose a team that have done it before - a skilled and experienced developer will be a lot quicker!

Our websites start from R4500.00 for a very basic site, upwards.

A few websites designed and developed by Dotcom SA.
www.girlsbestfriend.co.za 
www.veilandgarter.co.za
www.gib.co.za
www.destinyfund.co.za
www.taugamelodge.co.za
www.ice-sa.co.za
www.midrandchamber.co.za
www.execuprime.com
www.ezoneonline.co.za
www.fgasa.org.za
www.joburgbusinessweek.co.za
www.randjesfontein.co.za
www.youfindit.co.za

Website Maintenance
Once your website is live, you will want to update text and images within weeks, or even within days!
In most cases you will have full access to your website files, however if you don't know how to program, it's very easy to mess it all up!
Most organisations either pay for a "content management tool", that allows them to update the text themselves, or a "site maintenance fee" that includes a certain number of days worth of updates each month.
Content management and site maintenance is usually charged on a monthly or annual basis.

ENQUIRE NOW about Dotcom SA's website services.