We out-perform our competition in several ways

• We help educate and provide you with the tools and resources for your continued success.
• We really care about your business. We want to make sure that all our clients succeed. The majority of the web companies will not provide you with a one-to-one client relationship as we do. We listen to you and provide you with the solutions that will make you profitable.

The fact that you are here now is testimony to the power of the internet as a tool. Like you, there are millions who use the internet daily to find the services or get the answers they need. It is one of the least expensive and yet most effective forms of advertising available.

Five Reasons to build a Web site Having a web site will: Increase your ability to communicate with more customers Deepen customer/brand loyalty Add to your credibility and supply value to your customers Provide timely information and promote sales 24 hours a day, seven days a week Level the playing field between your business and larger competitors

Your customers - and potential customers - are using the web to buy products, obtain information, and establish relationships with businesses. Shouldn't they be coming to you instead of your competitors?

Joomla! is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that will help you build web sites and other powerful online applications. Best of all, Joomla! is an open source solution that is freely available to everybody.  Read more... 

River Media can build you a custom designed web site using Joomla! Find out more...

Disatisfied with your current site's results? Contact us for a free consultation if you see yourself in any of the following comments: Amazon.com may be making millions but I'm not. My brother-in-law designed it back in '97. My site looks great ... once it loads. It is really slow and we've had complaints. I got a cookie cutter approach. I need a custom solution. My site is a nice "brochure" but I know we need to do more. Five Reasons to improve your Web site Your competitor's site is much better Your customers never mention your site You want to increase sales You need to lose some overhead You want to gain market share in uncharted territory

We can help you improve or redesign your site. We can help you develop applications and online solutions to reduce costs and improve productivity. We can help you do e-commerce/e-business. Contact us for a free consultation to learn more about more options for your company.

People browsing the internet will generally find your site in three ways:

• by using a search engine/directory service such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.
• by finding you through links or banner ads from other sites.
• by seeing your web address in conventional marketing/advertising materials developed by you - your Web address should be included in every piece of paper that leaves your organization and every conventional advertising campaign you launch.

In the last year or two, Internet usage has become so pervasive that even businesses that serve strictly local markets are finding advantages from doing business on the Web. Since you can display any amount of valuable information about your products or services on your site, it is the ideal way for locals and future visitors to get to know you. Imagine the expenses you would incur to effectively advertise all the virtues of your business using traditional advertising. Buy a fraction of that ad space, include your Web address and tell the whole story on your web site!

E-commerce/e-business is more than selling books and toys online. E-business encompasses all the ways that a Web site can improve communication, distribution, customer support, marketing, etc. Often e-business is more about reducing costs (e.g. reducing mailings of catalogs) or improving productivity (e.g. applications and content aimed at sales force support) than direct sales. For example, do you have product catalogs, product specs, brochures, technical manuals, procedure manuals, etc. that are expensive to print and distribute? Put that information on a Web site for your customers, distributors or sales force.

Yes, we have experience developing online shopping/storefronts and we will guide you through the process. However, keep in mind that adding this function to a site can significantly increase the expense of developing the site. If, like the majority of businesses, you want to accept online credit card orders, there are additional expenses (other than site design) and a few other things you need to know.

• You may need to obtain a merchant account through a bank or financial institution (if you already accept credit cards just contact your financial institution and tell them you intend to accept online orders as well)
• Decide whether you want offline order processing (swipe, phone or computer entry of credit card orders at your place of business) or online/realtime order processing (all automatic - you are sent confirmation to fill the order - no order entry on your part). Both methods involve per transaction fees - real time order processing is more expensive.
• Decide on shipping and return policies upfront.
• Determine whether you want order integration with a back-end database or accounting package.
• A few businesses want to "sell" products through their web site but do not want to accept online credit card orders. If that is your preference, we will help you develop alternatives to conventional online shopping.
• We can guide you to other online payment alternatives for your shopping site that do not require merchant accounts. Give us a call!

Yes! We offer a few different solutions depending upon what type of content you need to update and how many people will be doing the updating. It consists of an easy to use, password-protected administration page located directly within your site.

Yes, we create a special private section either on your server or on our development server. At various steps in the process, we will show you the current version of your site (at a special web address) and ask for your comments and feedback. For example, most projects start with the front page design. We will design test layouts for your review and feedback. Once you have approved this stage of the project, we will proceed to develop the "inside" of your site. All stages are a collaboration between you and our team. No surprises ... your site does not "go live" until you have approved it.

Many IS/IT departments are fully capable of developing Web sites, however, many prefer to hire an outside firm for initial site development or site redesign. The reasons are many: time/budget constraints, lack of artistic ability, benefits of having an "outsider" view the site and process as if a potential customer, benefits of having an "outsider" guide the process with competing departments and interests (eg my stuff is more important than their stuff). If you use an outside firm to develop your site, your IT staff should be an integral part of the development process. Their suggestions and input may be critical and their commitment to the project and ongoing maintenance are improved if they are involved upfront.

Yes, software is available. However, for most people, the learning curve is steep and the results often do not meet expectations. When all is said and done, you want a site that is fully functional and professional in appearance. When you value your time and compare it to our cost-effective, experienced solutions, you will find that we nearly always offer the better value.

River Media can guide you through the entire process. We've assisted many businesses, large and small, in getting their organizations up and running on the net. Here is what you can do for starters:

• First Step - Determine what you wish to accomplish with your site - Reach new customers? Service existing customers? Service internal users? Think about the Who, What, Where, How, and Why of your organization. What information is most frequently requested? What content do you want to provide in a cost-effective manner e.g. specials, news/events, new products, etc? Do you want your site to act as a virtual salesperson, performing online transactions? Do you need to gather data for marketing purposes?
• Second Step - Gather any/all materials that you think might be relevant: logos, pictures, graphics, text, brochures, even basic ideas. More is better.
• Third Step (recommended but not critical) - Research other sites. Start with sites in your field but also consider sites that you have really liked/disliked for any particular reason. Look for content and features you like as well as designs/layouts.
• Fourth Step - Contact us for a free consultation!

Each project is different, some sites are more involved than others. After an initial free consultation we will provide you with an estimate of the cost to develop your site. Then we will work with you to develop your site within that budget and keep you posted on any additional costs that may be involved. One way to reduce the cost of your site is to provide text (and graphics such as logos) in digital format.

The host is the computer or server that "houses" your Web site. It could be in your back office, at an Internet Service Provider in your town, or it could be hosted in another city. Physical location is not important but the reliability, capabilities and support of the hosting company are very important. For the vast majority of sites, bandwidth and storage are far less important than features, support & reliability.

Our domain name is river-media.net ... we will help you register a unique domain name for your site or you can do this yourself with any Domain Registrar. Because domain names are vanishing at a rapid rate, we recommend that this be one of your first steps.

Search Engine Optimization is the practice of getting your web site listed in the search engines and ranked higher than competitors pages for particular keywords. Basically, it means making sure your site comes to the top when people are looking for your product or service!

Meta tags are HTML tags that are placed in the HTML coding of a web page. This provides information to the browsers that visitors to the site cannot see. It helps not only to determine the content of a page, but also to determine how a listing should appear in the search results.

• The DESCRIPTION tag lets you control what will appear as a result you're your page appears on a search result and is also used by the search engines to determine relevancy of a page for positioning.
• The KEYWORDS tag lets you designate words that you believe people would search when looking for your page. Some search engines read the keywords tag, but many do not.