Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Three, Two, One — Take Off!

NASA launches its space shuttle missions at certain times of the day, and under the most forgiving weather conditions. Although we guarantee that the weather outside isn't a concern for your launch, certain times are better than others for sending your site out on the Net.

Particularly when you're using a freelance Web site designer, you should have input about when your site launches. Because that person usually sends the files to the server on your behalf, request that your site be launched early in the week. That way, if a problem surfaces, you have plenty of time (during the workweek) to fix it. Frustration is quick to set in when you launch a site on Friday afternoon and discover a problem shortly there after that you have to live with for the whole weekend.

When you use an outside developer, you're asked to sign a waiver when the project is finished. The waiver says that your site is accurate and that all requested changes were made. You get a sense of finality when your site comes off a project-management list. Sign the waiver only when you're completely satisfied! The Web developer is then released from additional work after the site is launched. If your provider charges for maintenance (or changes) to the site, the signed waiver signals that the provider can switch you from the development stage to the stage of paying for Web maintenance, which ...