How should a small business start up go about creating a website?

Along with wix, I'd consider weebly.com and yola.com . Both sites give you design templates to choose from and a suite of premium add-ons like payment and other services.

I built coppersdream.org on top of weebly and have been reasonably pleased with the service. Especially of late, after they upgraded their infrastructure.

Sometimes, there are vertical specific web hosting services, e.g. realtor.com serves up services specific to real estate agents. I'd bet there's something out there for medical practitioners.

We have found WordPress a great way to launch a website ... originally a blog platform, they have added a "gillion wizzy whigs" and abilities. The ".com" version has a minimal pricepoint and TONS of perks ...

but SO SO SO importantly, please tell your friend to read Googles "best practices" on KEYWORDS and Search Engine Optimization ... it is SO VERY important. I know, it's not nearly as fun as thinking about the cool, savvy design, but a website that is NOT optimized isn't worth TWO CENTS. And make sure she's is launching a website for all the right reasons ... does she want to drive traffic into the store? Has she thought about HOW she's going to drive folks to the website? (the key here, especially in a field like alternative medicine, is identifying those folks who are you alternative med. "evangelists" and definitely offering meaningful content.)

Lots of stuff to think about :) BEST WISHES!

I think the contributors above all miss a key point, and that is has your friend clearly defined the goals and objectives of the business, and have they determined how the company and its products should be positioned and promoted. If they have not, then they probably need to answer those critical questions BEFORE they even start to think about building a website.

I've helped reposition and relaunch a lot of small-medium sized companies that had previously rushed off and designed brochures and launched websites without thinking about who their target audience is or the way their brand should be positioned and promoted (on and off line). It's far more cost-effective in my experience to sort out those key issues before worrying about building a website.

There's a free article about branding start ups here: http://blog.everythingdesign.co.nz/branding-start-ups/ which touches on these very points.

I'd encourage your friend to read that article before rushing into a web build project. If doing the brand work first creates an affordability issue, then they may need to think about whether or not their new business has enough capital behind it to succeed in the first instance or, at the very least, building a simple holding page while the owner accumulates the necessary funds to do a decent job of it.

Once the resources are in place, they should then find and work with someone who has created effective customer-oriented brands to help them create the new website and product packaging etc rather than think a cheap one-size-fits-all solution will enable them to compete successfully in what is already a highly competitive sector.

Check out this article I found on website design
http://biznik.com/articles/egg-on-your-face-10-website-mistakes-to-avoid

HI,

I disagree with most of my previous speakers.

It is very(!) easy to actually build a website, yes. I did that, I used wordpresss, joomla, cheap hosts and some others...

If you want to have a successful website - and especially are a "newbie", I wouldn't recommend doing that...

I suggest and use SBI, the only online business incubator I know. It is a bit more expensive (meaning not zero USD), yes, but all the tools needed and instructions and online help 24/7 are included...

The tools and instructions (and forums) are the most important thing about this. Has anybody told you that keyword research is crucial, how to do that and why most keyword tools are not so helpful because they do not tell you how big the competition for every single keyword is? So why it is not clever to simply go for the keyword with the biggest demand?

I learned that only with SBI and they have the only tool I know which gives you demand AND competition for all the keywords...

Today I now have a wordpress blog additionally for a certain purpose

I'd say 99% of people starting online are wasting their time because they build a nice website, but nobody comes visiting...

My new website built with SBI is about 4 months old, and I was just promoted in Google Analytics into the "middle" traffic level comparison group...(I do not buy traffic).
The tools in SBI helped me to actually setup my online business plan, whom to target, etc.

About 62% of all SBI customers' pages make it into the internet's top 3% (as defined by Alexa). Compare that to many other services.

I think by now it is clear that I found the Host/tool for me ;)

And if you want to know more, feel free to shoot me a mail. You can also read more about my SBI experiences at http://www.homeofsolarenergy.com/home-based-business-start-up.html

The internet is phantastic for these purposes like taking a practice online, but only helpful if you know what you are doing.

If you want an online business card though, the suggestion made by others are in my opinion absolutely ok

Hope this helps your friend to have a great start

Daniel

On the technical side, I agree with Patricia, WordPress is a nice place to start and reasonable even if you need consulting services to get up and running. I also strongly agree with the "content" bit.

If your friend is just starting out I would suggest using an incemental approach. Promotion of services (with interesting topical content), promotion/sales of products and then maybe other more involved interactive facilities. Some of those advanced features like appointment interfaces require a higher level of technical safistication and security given the medical context - think HIPPA.

This is a learning approach working on multiple levels. It also is incremental and conservative in costs.

Considering the "personal" nature of this business thought should be put into how your friend's clients "want" to be addressed. High tech, high touch is hard to accomplish via the internet even for savvy practitioners.

Ah, great feedback. Thank you all. How much does this typically cost? I realize it could be dependent on features and infrastructure, but a ballpark?

If you want a custom design by a professional designer, custom features, and content management, but don't want to do it yourself, we have a Professional Website Package for $799. Please see our website and contact us via the contact form or just call. Thanks! Ed

I don't know if it was a good choice or not since I am just starting out myself; but I used Vista Print for my website. Two months free then $20/mth.

I suggest either WordPress or Blogger to startout with no costs... It will take some of your time though -- maybe 15 or 20 hours or so. After that, you should create a new blog post once or twice per week which might take 15 or 20 minutes once you decide what to 'blog' about.

Lexi, if your friend employs salespeople, I would strongly suggest that you advise her to construct the website in such a way that it can be leveraged by her salespeople. Many business people put little to no thought into the integration of a website into sales strategy – and, subsequently, lose sales.

-Steve

I would use WordPress and leverage the plugins they have to increase the websites functionality.

We build WordPress websites for $500 flat and that includes 1 free year of web hosting. You can contact us here: http://gabstermedia.com/

I agree with John V, although I wasn't entirely "techie" i.e. missing the point, in my response. I read his article and suggest lookning at:

http://www.smallbusinessbible.org/developingstrategy_website.html

I think this second article is more informative and to the point. Yes, add in the concept of branding, which that article doesn't. The bit they appear to leave out is that after considering you audience and their nature, you have to think about how you want them to think/feel about you, your products and your services... then plan and execute that "communications" (brand) and operating plan.

Back to the techie bit.

If you are intrepid about setup etc. you can be up and running on your own with a site for less than $200/year. The advise you get from folks like Jason at Gabster Media can be worth a lot more than the $300 difference.

You can use http://www.borneosoft.com
It has calendar management that has the capability to set RSVP and invite people for the appointment. It's easy to check whether the participants will be attending or not. The participants can easily click yes or no in the email invitation sent by the system automatically. It saves a lot of work.

It also has blog with ready made template. And setting up a website is very easy by selecting the template. She can start promoting her services by posting any articles, or anything very easily.

There are many other productivity tools also available. It comes with Free Edition for 2 users. And it is web based with familiar user interface.

All good suggestions but I think that Yahoo Small Business is the easy way to go for making a website. For a small monthly payment they supply the web hosting, templates for creating the site and easy tools for the features that you may need.

Hope this information helps.

Best wishes,

Pamela

Here are two blog posts you may find useful:

Where to start when you want to start a website http://bit.ly/bYvudU
Creating your small business website: 3 easy ways to get online: http://bit.ly/aPL8TA

Best of luck,
Alexa

There are a lot of good and varying ideas above, here are my thoughts and ideas

1. Make sure that you have all your business concept already established so you can identify your target customers and the benefits that you will provide them.

2. Decide what you really expect out of your website and define a realistic budget and time frame that you are looking for results, as well as your possible capabilities. Given your conclusion here will decide whether you put up a simple blog type site using many of the free or inexpensive options; or go with a company to provide the products that you are looking for.

this is a good beginning to your online marketing efforts, but like any other type of marketing you must try to avoid many of the common mistakes that those starting out online make - check out my article here http://gscmarketinggroup.com/do_not_just_be_an_online_brochure.php

if you have any questions or would like to go over in more detail some of the decisions that you will need to make or discuss different choices that are out there for you - such as social media, video marketing, and so many other choices out there to get your product in front of your new customers - email me george@gscmarketinggroup.com

I agree with Jeff Dix. I've developed 4 sites with www.wix.com and absolutely love it. I would say it's an absolute must for a small business. You can get a nice looking site up quickly. The more you use wix, the more you realize the flexibility and power. Check out my site as an example: www.socialthirst.com

Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or need a resource. No reason to pay for the resources they offer in order to answer basic questions.

@socialthirst

I'm going to side with the WordPress folks. I love WordPress and have built a business around it. It offers unlimited possibilities and provides a substantial amount of growth for a start-up. Be careful of the offers of very cheap websites if you intend on expanding your website's functionality. They will quickly box you into limited functionality and limited opportunities for organic SEO.

It really depends on how much she has to spend and how many hours/weeks she's interested in doing things herself.

There are companies on the web that specialize in templated websites for holistic practitioners. They provide templates, you add the pictures and content, and they charge "x" per month for hosting. I have a client who used one of those a few years ago and it cost her $700-1000 per year.

Costco and Sams Club also provide either templated website or customized sites they create for you. I'm unsure of the prices since I haven't researched them since sometime in 2003.

You can have someone create a site from scratch -- cost for the site $2000 to 12000 depending on what your friend needs on the site.

She can create a site using Wordpress, Druple or Jomla (content management systems) that allow changes to the pages, etc. in files that look like Word Docs. OR hire someone to create the guts of such a site and then insert the words.

Some hosting companies, like the one I use offer templates, word press plug ins as well as plug ins for Druple or Jomla.

As you can see there are many opportunities; and many programs that can be used and it comes down to money and time. It takes time to learn how to fix a program to your liking; and that's after learning how to use it.

But before she creates anything I would highly recommend that if she doesn't have the inner brand work, that gets done first. Things like target market, ideal client, business plan, etc. Those things get given to graphic designers, web designers and writers to help the create a better website for you. Because a website is your outter brand; brochure, merchant account and much more. Something not done "with a plan" will lead to many sleepless nights.

I have all my website resources at http://www.TheResourceQueen.com/website.html

My clients do it one of three ways:
1) themselves because they have time and not the few grand it takes to do it right
2) pay someone else do take care of the whole thing.
3) a mixture of one and two.

There are quite a few different solutions and sites. If you would like some help and guidance please contact me at crellan@gmail.com and I would gladly assist.

Hello,

I know that you posted this some time ago however I had to weigh in with my thoughts.

I've worked with various different solutions for myself as well as clients, from handcoding sites, which is a nightmare to using Joomla and Wordpress and handsdown I have to tell you that Wordpress is bar far the best solution and CMS tool for powering a website.

First of all the amount of plugins and widget that you can install to improve seo and get traffic on autopilot is amazing, take this plugin for instance:

http://www.undergroundtraininglab.com/458/traffic-getting-seo-plugin/

Also there are other plugins that will submit your content to rss directories resulting in traffic and more backlinks.

However, don't get too carried away with installing too many plugins.

I'm working on a post right now about the top wordpress plugins on my website:

www.imtips4newbies.com so look for it soon.

By the way that site is powered by the wordpress headway theme, (as is my other site www.webworksmedia.com and a client site www.edmontondentalcare.ca) which in my humble opinion is the only wordpress theme you need.

You can check out the headway theme here:

http://headwaythemes.com/

You'll also find a lot of other diverse sites that have been built using headway on their website.

The theme rocks and the support is fantastic so your friend could always build the site herself or if she doesn't have time she could hire someone to do it in the site forum "for hire" space.

Or if you like you can get in touch with me and I would be more than happy to assist.

That being said, if for some strange reason wordpress and headway is not a good fit, check out the service offered by Barrie North over at www.simplweb.com

It is Joomla based and the only service I would recommend to someone wanting to use Joomla. (Don't attempt Joomla alone if you are not a web developer/programmer, its a bit of a headache)

That being said, I hope this has been helpful.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me via my website or on twitter at

www.twitter.com/webworksmedia

Sincerely,

Matt Fraser

I am sure that at this point, your friend has found a resource, but for future reference, I offer very affordable rates for anyone who needs to get started and does not have the time or knowledge to get started. My website is www.socialexposurehub.com.

If someone needs help just getting information on free websites and low cost hosting, just have them contact me at lisa@socialexposurehub.com. Free web building products are starting to offer more dynamic site options that help make your site pop.