Comin'OutSwingin said:
What are your opinions about publishing your index page and having it under construction?
Do not under any circumstances use the actual words "Under Construction". It's extremely 1996 and has connotations of unfinished pages that are forever incomplete.
I think publishing an index page before the main site is okay though.
Comin'OutSwingin said:
I don’t want to wait until my site is completed to put the web address on the business cards.
Obviously it's preferable to be up and running before people are exposed to your business - people will be disappointed if they try to go to your website and they can't, but it's not the end of the world. If I was in your situation I would put the URL on the cards and have a placeholder website up.
As a customer I am more annoyed if the business card I get has no URL than if I go to it and the site isn't up yet.
Personally I'd question the need to show people my business card before I'd question the need to have the URL on it. Obviously business cards are useful and that may just be unavoidable for you, but the point I am making is that the website is, to me, extremely important - and having one that isn't open (but shows a committment to having one) is better than not having one at all.
Comin'OutSwingin said:
What about a small paragraph or two with some info on what my company is about?
Too much?
How much info should be there since no one will be able to purchase any items. I don't think I even want to show any items until the site is fully funtional?
Yep, a small blurb is a good idea. Having a picture or two of a design could be okay to create interest, or don't do that if you don't want to - I think that really depends on you and whether you want to pique people's interest now, or show everything at once when you launch.
Having sample products shows what you're about and shows that you have product ready to sell, so finishing the website will actually happen (i.e. the business is more than theoretical to you). On the other hand it can add clutter and maybe you don't want to tip your cards. Either way works in my opinion.
I think it's important to set a date (not to the day, but something like "Mid June 2006") and stick to it. As Rodney said there are a lot of coming soon pages that have been there for years so you need to make it clear you're not one of them. It also means people know when to check back if they remember it.
If a site doesn't say when it's going to be there I tend to just forget about it, if it's going to take too long to be up that's potentially a problem (3 or more months is very bad), and if it's not up when they say it will be that is pretty much a death knell. It's difficult to balance, but I think setting a date is important. There's nothing wrong with opening early, so you can always use a conservative estimate.
Make sure you have a functional e-mail address at the domain, and have that contact information available on the temporary page - it shows you are using the domain and that while the site isn't ready for the public yet it is an integral part of your business. If you are planning on having a mailing address or phone number then having that contact information there is also something to consider.
Basically a page that has all the alternate ways you can be contacted since their primary angle (the website) has been thwarted, and a small blurb so that if they just wanted to know what you were about that has been answered.
If you are planning on offering a newsletter then have the option to sign up for that on the splash page. That way people can sign up and forget about it, and when you launch they'll get an e-mail to remind them to go back. Who knows if anyone will actually sign up in the age of spam fear, but it's worth a shot.
The most important thing, in my opinion, is that a Coming Soon page should never have a scrollbar (unless you're going with the blog idea, in which case it shouldn't not have a scrollbar
). You can fit quite a bit of info in there, but it should be simple and very clean looking.
