The concept of web development may include more than a singular ecommerce website.

I have talked about the subject of web development in light of positively constructing a website. I've also talked about the mentality needed to envision the entire site prior to launch so you have some idea of where you want to go. The goal also included the need for a plan for growth and site expansion.

This article looks at the subject from the point of view of a corporate office with a few satellite offices that support and expand the potential of the primary business.

In a brick and mortar store environment it is often true that a business will start in a singular location. As trust is built through longevity and commitment to quality and service the business grows. If the business does well the owner may decide to develop a second store in another city within the region of primary service and support. Other stores may be opened as a result of the ongoing success of the overall operation. The idea is multiple stores - one brand.

Web development may be the mirror image of the brick and mortar model. Why do I say mirror? Well, because in the case of an online environment an ecommerce business owner may be better served by starting with the secondary stores and building up to the primary online business portal.

If you're thinking, "That does seem backwards," allow me to explain.

These satellite stores should have direct links to your primary site. Each satellite may have its own emphasis, but will always relate to the thrust of your main business. The end goal remains the same, multiple stores - one brand.

Why develop more than one site?

In web development the idea of more than one site could mean improved site rankings for your primary site and additional opportunities to reach potential customers.

Think of it this way. Each satellite website you develop can take on a distinct list of keywords or phrases. Each will be associated with your primary product. All content on the site will be geared toward the specific keyword or phrase.

If you have four supporting sites that can go online at the same time as your primary site you have five distinct opportunities to reach consumers with your message. Work to optimize each site for search engines and select unique and researched keywords or phrases for each site.

Is that the only benefit?

By developing your web presence this way you begin the process with backlinks already in place from the satellite sites to your primary web presence. As your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies begin yielding results they should do so in all five instances and ultimately this effort benefits your bottom line.

By having five separate sites that market the same product from a slightly different vantage point the potential improves for increased sales. This is true not just because there are more sites for consumers to view, but because search engines will connect with this scenario and provide improved rankings earlier.

Proper web development may include more than one site and more than one approach as the vehicle used to maximize the overall potential of the product or service being marketed.

Introduction

Semantic web as defined by the creator of the web Tim Berners-Lee is "a web of data, in some ways like a global database" (Berners-Lee, 1998). To elaborate further Mr. Berners-Lee explains in an interview held by IDG Now, data is expressed on computers as associated files with applications that deal specifically with information, an example would be, data in calendars, bank systems, spreadsheets, and database application. Looking at a web page, data is not clearly defined and not associated with any of the applications usually on computers. Semantic web will allow data to interact and connect together; it will bring on a common data format for all applications, for databases and web pages alike (Moon, 1999). Semantic web is not to build an artificial intelligence system which allows computers to understand what humans write on web pages; on the contrary, it is an attempt to make web pages more understandable and well-defined to support automatic extraction of data from within web content (Berners-Lee, 1998).

Analysis

The emergence of the web and the way HTML took off was driven by how society's needed to grew, from Internet chat to file transfer to high-end communities through blogs and wiki's. HTML was not limited to web content, knowledge base and help files adapted the language as a format to document software applications and provide training material. The revolution of technologies on the Internet allowed companies like Google to index pages; a thought that was very far away, says Tim Berners-Lee in his lecture at MIT. Web services have evolved to pave the road for distributed information and modular programming allowing interoperability among sites. Through XML, data in one site can be used by another using the common protocols and standards supported by both (Berners-Lee, 1998). XML defines schemas that deal with fields of data, what is required is a system that can tell the computer what sort of information (data) it can derive from within a page (Moon, 1999). With Web 3.0 a site will provide data that can be navigated through and extracted from multiple sites, this is a result of the fact that semantic web data model is closely related to a relational database where records of data share common fields that connect them together (Berners-Lee, 1998).

The solution provided to support semantic web is in the form of metadata that describes the data contained on web pages. Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a base to manage metadata; it is the ground that computers can use to exchange and interact with applications on the Web (W3C RFC, 1999). The applications for RDF include digital libraries, online catalogs, and indexing systems that are usually associated with content and content relationships models deployed in most web pages. With RDF data within business portals will be analyzed and identified as resources, properties, or statements transparent to the domain, further more, the specifications will merge with other documents to comprise a framework of classes. Classes organized as a hierarchy comprises a schema that can be reusable as metadata definitions along side multiple platforms. Resources created in this hierarchy can be identified using a resource identifier (URI), which enables a document given to a machine with this identification to be recognized by the system and triggers it to dig and find similar data (Berners-Lee, 1998).

Implications

Semantic web can be the solution to overpower the limitations of current information management systems in finding and extracting data from unorganized resources. RDF is meant to describe any data regardless of its character, location, source, or type, the concept of URI is richer to uniquely identify any object on the web (Berners-Lee, 1998). The pillars of Semantic web are standards and common protocols that are the bases for knowledge representation; HTML, RDF, the data language resource description web ontology language (OWL) that describes to the machine what is going on, in addition to RDF1 which is a query language to make inquiries among machines much easer, will all emerge and collaborate to bring in more to the web and more intelligent programs that will bring the Internet more closer (Cleave, 2004).

The current research and implementation of Abilene network and the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Internet 2 of high-performance backbone network linking major universities and research labs across the US, is a good foundation for what Semantic web can do, and represent the perfect platform for grid computing, digital libraries, virtual laboratories, and distance learning (Abilene, Internet2). Internet2 or I2 was developed by a group of universities in 1996 providing improved connectivity standards to reach 10gbps (gigabits per second). With more than 227 universities and libraries connected, network based applications and experimental programs can run on this network of high-bandwidth connection feeding on the latest technology of gigabit Ethernet and IP protocol version 6 (Reardon, 2004). Semantic web standards can be the base of material and data distributed on this network, providing the best test platform to explore the full potential and what can be achieved.

Conclusion

Tim Berners-Lee believes that with Web 3.0 we can succeed and fantastic things can happen, but the infrastructure need to be built, laws of privacy and security need to be revised and honored, further more, the web need to remain open for researchers to allow for continuous upgrade and development. Semantic web will kick off when individuals materialize the need to work on data processing, and think about collaborating their data, with company's information and that of the government (Moon, 1999).

References:

1. Berners-Lee, Tim. 1998. Semantic Web Road map.W3C team. (14 October 1998) http://www.w3.org/ DesignIssues/Semantic (accessed 16 Jul 2007)
2. Moon, Peter. 1999. The future of the Web as seen by its creator. IT World IDG Now (7 July 1999) http://www.itworld.com/Tech/4535/070709future/ (accessed 14 Jul 2007)
3. W3C RFC. 1999. Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax Specification. W3 Consortium (5 January 1999) http:// www.w3.org/TR/PR-rdf-syntax/ (accessed 20 Jul 2007)
4. Cleave, Kenith Van. 2004. Regis University Database Practicum Experience. Regis University. (14 November 2004) http:// trackit.arn.regis.edu/dba/Thesis%2520Papers/

   kvancleave_2004Bfinalreport_20041118.pdf (accessed 16 Jul 2007)

5. Abilene, Internet2. http://abilene.internet2.edu/about/ (accessed 17 Jul 2007)
6. Reardon, Marguerite. 2004. Internet2: 2004 and beyond. CNET, News (24 August 2004) http:// news.com.com/2100-1034_3-5321053.html (accessed 19 Jul 2007)

Personal websites and business may not go hand-in-hand as far as you are concerned, but I urge you to think again. If you want to sell something, you may need to "sell yourself" first. People enjoy doing business with someone they know and like. More importantly, they want to know that they can trust you.

We are actually able to transact business all over the world due to today's technology. The problem with that can be a lack of personal service. However, with the internet, and especially with personal websites, we can feel as if we know someone that we have never actually met. We can know what a person looks like, we can know the sound of their voice, we can know all about their family, hobbies, dreams, future goals, etc.

When someone is surfing the web looking for a way to work from home, they are also looking for someone to partner with. Someone to mentor them and show them the way. They want to feel comfortable with a prospective future business partner.

If you want them to consider joining your opportunity, you have to be visible on the internet. You have to be willing to get personal and reveal yourself to them. Your site should be warm and inviting. It should provide information about you and your business opportunity. Give them a way to contact you.

This really is the way to gain business partners from all over the world, or from just the good old U.S. if your company is not international. Think about what you were looking for when you were searching for a home business. I don't know about you, but I felt a connection with my sponsor. I felt as if I knew her just by looking at her website.

That is what you want to create. You want to seem warm, friendly, and approachable. You want your reader to feel as if they already know you. A lady contacted me via email recently who was interested in my candle business. She practically told me her life story in that email, and it is probably because she felt like she knew me. She had seen my site and already knew all about me.

That is a good thing. It means that she felt as if I was someone she could talk to candidly. She must have thought that I would be approachable and would be receptive to her. Not everybody who contacts you will be so open. They may be wary of you and your business, but they contacted you because they found something of interest. This is when you provide them with honest answers to all their questions. It is also where you give them that personal attention that they are seeking.

Their state of mind when they contact you is not important. The fact that they made a connection is what matters. The reason for the connection was that they found your personal website and liked something they saw there. They were able to contact you because you provided them with either a phone number, email address, or both.

Do you see how this works? Prospects come to you. You do not have to "beat the streets" or chase your friends and family in order to build your business. This is not yesterday's network marketing, it is the new way. Believe me, it is also the best way. Many of yesterday's methods gave us a bad rap because they were so annoying.

Personal websites and business work well together. Get your own site up soon. It doesn't have to be fancy; just informative. Keep it simple and see what happens. I am sure that you will be pleased with the results. Remember to advertise your website and tell your friends about it. You cannot just build it and hope they will come.