Being Self Employed – How To Set-up a Business Website
Steps 4, 5 and 6
Alright! You've got your first choice in domain names, a top notch – dirt cheap web hosting company selected WITH a simple to use control panel all with very little hassle except for narrowing down your choices! With that accomplished you may only be reading this next installation for amusement purposes or even to pick up a few tips you hadn't thought of! For the rest of us, here are the next 3 important steps to setting up an award winning business website:
Decide on the design style and layout. Most of us know what web sites catch our attention and which don't! It's a wise practice to search online for sites offering the same types of products or services that you have to sell. Why???? So that you can see and note any trends – in order to 'stand out' in a crowd you first have to know what the crowd is 'wearing!' Once you've checked out the 'norm,' you have a good list of design ideas that you DO want on your site and that you DON'T want to imitate! I recommend visiting at least 10 sites to really see a comprehensive display in your business category.
Invest in site design software. If you've already 'signed on the dotted line' with a web hosting company that offers a simple build-it-yourself software package in its control panel then you're ahead of the site design software issue. Web site design software comes in 3 very distinct levels: Simple – which often isn't really simple but has very little room for customization and or design 'freedom; Basic – which costs any where from $19.95 to $200 and offers lots of templates, graphics, web objects [flash files – you know the web pages that slide words and pictures into place, etc.], audio and video capacity, etc. and 'Techie' [which is MY name for the type, you may call it something different such as 'advanced,' 'professional,' or 'expert'] -- Techie software offers everything that Basic offers with the added abilities to take quite a bit of time to learn and master where the trade off comes in building a super top notch site that rivals Canon, Sprint or even Greyhound! I have an affinity for Serif WebPlus [Basic], for it's ease of use and outstanding tutorials, templates and 'add-ons!' I've also used Microsoft Publisher [2003 version] and recommend any number of low cost WYSIWYG [What You See Is What You Get] software offered at any local Office Depot, Office Max, Best Buy or Circuit City, etc.. There are also great quality Simple and Basic wysiwyg software offerings for FREE listed at TuCows, SnapFiles or The Free Site to name a few freeware/shareware sites. For those of you that are 'method based' in your business approach the freeware/shareware is the way to go: you can download free demo trials AND unlimited use software that may prove to be simple and to the point for a very good start off website design. For the 'savvy shopper' such as myself, the freeware/shareware sites are my first stop to find test software and templates in order to get a true picture of what my sites can look like. . . .
Investigate some of the FREE web hosting sites – they offer a variety of easy-to-use site templates and extras such as site counters, blogs, forums, forms, shopping carts, etc. There is generally a limited amount of pages that can be hosted on these sites but since you're creating an entry level site for the most part, this option can be the best and easily affordable one for many. Some free web hosting services are: BlinkWeb, MyHosting24/7, eSmartStart and WebNG. Thousands if not millions of start up internet businesses as well as established small and online businesses utilize FREE web hosting services AND once your business outgrows the limitations of the bandwidth or number pages [you'll be adding so many products and new services due to your phenomenal success!] copying and moving your site to a dedicated paid hosting service will be virtually 'child's play!' As an incentive many of the free hosting services offer the 'free' sites with hopes that once the need arises customers will upgrade to their paid accounts – and if you are comfortable with the backend [control panel] along with the customer support or whatever that the free account gives you then upgrading is one way of 'giving back' to the provider!
For me, knowing my options and becoming familiar with those options is a prime factor in decision making – I not only like HAVING a road map, I like having a general idea of what's ON the map before I set off on the road! Such is the reward of living long enough to have garnered some wisdom after being a very young and impulsive 'youth!' Gone are the days of having a vague notion of where point 'b' is and breaking out in a blaze of smoke without knowing whether or not the roads to 'Rome' were under construction. . . . .
So, I could have listed the free software and site hosting services first, however, without being given the impetus to think about where you want your site to take your business, that would have been just another 'hype' bit of info which is all too prevalent online these days. Which leads me to another great parting shot: Take your time and read between the lines – it's your life, time and business AND only YOU can do it justice!
YE is Here!
YE is an author; electronics, computer & gadget geek; certified holistic health consultant; grandmother and devoted traveler that currently resides in Georgia. She can be contacted for interviews, consultations and general comments at either of her websites.
©2008 S.U.R.-B.E.T. Publishing
