Contact an EBS Partner. To get a free JumpStart Web site, your business must be located in Rio Arriba, Taos, San Miguel or Mora county, and you must be a client of an EBS Partner. You will be required to prepare a marketing plan where the purpose of a Web presence is clearly outlined. The EBS Partner can assist you in preparing the plan or refer you to someone who will help you. To get started, you should contact one of the EBS Partners listed on the EBS Web site (bizport.org). 

The JumpStart program provides you with a free Web site and one year of hosting. After the first year, you have the option of leaving your site on the NMIPA server and paying $20 per month (inclusive of five email addresses), or you can move your site to a hosting service of your choice. Some services are as cheap as $9.95 per month.

You must also pay for your own domain registration, which runs $10 to $30 per year, depending on the registrar that you select. The most important aspect of registering your domain is that you make yourself the “Administrative Contact” so that you own and control your own domain. The Web developer/designer can help you secure a domain.

Be sure the consultant helps you learn how to maintain your Web site on your own, to edit text and work with photos. It is not helpful if the consultant does everything for you.

One of the goals and benefits of JumpStart is that you will learn a bit about Web design so that you can maintain your own Web site. You may not aspire to becoming a Web designer, but you will appreciate the ability to make simple changes and updates without having to hire a designer.

You can help entrepreneurs in the EBS service area get a free Web site. The first step is to conduct an initial interview to identify the client’s needs and to enter him/her into the EBS database. The client may already have had contact with one of the NMIPA members involved in JumpStart. If so, the NMIPA member may refer the client to you to begin the formal process. All clients must be registered with the EBS before work can commence on a Web site.

If the client comes to you first, you can explore the advantages of a Web presence for the business and tell the client about the JumpStart program. You will find a description of the program on the home page of this Web site (jumpstartnm.org). Alternately, please read the JumpStart Program Announcement on the EBS Bizport site

If an EBS client wants to participate in the JumpStart program, please ask if he/she is willing to sign a release so that information submitted can be shared with the JumpStart people. The release form is available on the EBS Web site. [Get the form now]. Once you have the release signed by the client, then go to the EBS database and make a formal referral. Go to “EBS Clients” from the “EBS Admin” tab at the top of the homepage. Click on the name of the client to bring up the profile. The referral option resides toward the bottom of the profile. From the drop-down list, select “NMIPA JumpStart”, and then check “E-Commerce/Internet/Computers” from the list. Be sure to note that the client signed the release form.

Once the formal referral is in place, please contact JumpStart. You can email Bill Morrison at mrbillm@newmexico.com with a copy to exec_director@nmipa.org. You can also call 505-660-1115.

Finally, the client (hopefully with your assistance) needs to prepare a marketing plan that explains the ramifications of a Web presence. There are many good resources on the Web. A site called Marketing Plans offers a basic approach that should de-mystify the process. We do not expect a lengthy dissertation, but we do want the client to gain insight into his/her market.

You will have the pleasure of working with an EBS client to develop a Web site. Our goal is to provide a Web presence for the client’s business, and to instill in the client enough computer knowledge so that he/she can make simple updates to the Web site.

Some of the JumpStart Web sites are designed in DotNetNuke, a Microsoft product that lends itself to easy updates but also requires the designer to create the site from within Internet Explorer. The developer is free to select his/her tools to build the site. The main stipulation is that the client receives a thorough grounding on how to update the site. Some designers are asking the client to purchase Adobe’s “Contribute” (about $160). Others are exploring Nvu, a free Web authoring program. Coffee Cup represents a third alternative (in between “free” and $160).

The JumpStart program will pay you at an hourly rate in line with current market rates. You are limited to a maximum of 20 hours including obtaining a domain name and at least four hours of client training. Therefore, the site must be kept simple. Under certain circumstances, JumpStart will take on clients that already have a Web presence. In such a case, the developer is limited to a maximum of 10 hours.

Before doing any work, please ensure that the client is registered with EBS and has a marketing plan on file. When you have secured a domain name, please email the client contact information, the domain and the type of site you plan to develop (DNN or not) to Jane Hill, jhill@cybermesa.com. She will add the site to the server (which runs on a Windows platform). When the site has been added to the server, then you will need to point the DNS to:

                            Name Server: INTERNET.CYBERMESA.COM
                            Name Server: NAME.PHX.GBLX.NET

Jane is the Treasurer of the NMIPA, so she also handles your billings. Invoices should be submitted by email (issued to JumpStart/NMIPA) and should include when you worked on a give site, how much time you spent and what you did.

Please email your questions to exec_director@nmipa.org. If something is really urgent, then call 505-660-1115.

 
We hope that all participants will learn and grow and otherwise benefit from the JumpStart program.