Starting a small business website?

Starting a web site for your business is a great idea! When I'm looking for something, the first place I look to is the web, so this is a very smart step that you're taking.

If you don't want to hire a web designer you might look into SquareSpace (www.squarespace.com), Yola (www.yola.com), or WetPaint (www.wetpaint.com). I'm actually working with SquareSpace to develop a site for my mom's office, and I've found its pretty easy to use. The nice part is that they offer a lot of different tools which will allow your site to grow along side your business.

Best of luck!

Lynn,

This would depend greatly on what you plan to use the website for. If it is going to be a place to just tell people about the products/services you offer and a bit of information about your company, you could probably use a template site to create a business card site.

If you plan for a more interactive experience that allows the end user to interact with the site, submit information to a database, shop online, or log into an account you will be best off hiring a web developer for this.

Please also note that if you are going to use your site for marketing that you would be best off to hire an SEO consultant to ensure you site will index properly on all of the search engines.

My advise to you would be to go and talk to some web developers. Most people are more than willing to consult with you for no fee and someone with a good moral compass should be able to tell you if your project does not require their level of programming.

There's also sites like http://99designs.com/ where you can set out what you need and how much you're prepared to pay, and freelance webfolk submit designs.

May be worth a look.

Nowadays everyone can start a website just because of there are many options either free or commercial (Wordpress.com, Vendr.com offer free website package and good for you to start with), you can also go to Freelance portals like elance.com or freelancer.com and asking some people to help you.

Making a website is good, but making a website that works is much more important. A website is useless until it meets the owner's expectation. That why we need a plan or a consultant. Your time is important.

I think before you start your website, there are something you should do first: doing market analysis, understand your product and clearly set goals for your business. Then you may start asking for someone help or choosing to do it by yourself.

"A goal properly set is half way reached." – Zig Ziglar

Lynn, before going to free website builders etc. online, have a chat with a professional designer - a small business website does not need to be expensive, if you provide a budget (of what you can afford) most professional designer's will work with you to create a professional website for you that will effectively reflect your brand and market goals to your target audience. If you'd like to chat, please feel free to contact me. I'm a professional web designer/developer and I've helped small business owners with affordable websites many times.

I forgot to add my contact info (Anne above). You can find info. on my site dewlillydesign.com - give me a call, I don't charge a fee for just answering questions. :)

Lynn, you have my deepest sympathy, I went through the same process about a year ago. Here's what I learned:

*Most individuals that tell you they know about web design, are full of it.
*Don't use a web template, build it from scratch, any decent web designer will make this suggestion
*Do your own research before you do anything else, it pays to educate yourself
*Kevin is right about content and usability, content is everything.
*Be clear in your mind why want a website and what you would like it to do for you, don't expect the web designer to do that for you, that's your job
*If you are retailing a product, find someone who really understand Google Analytics and how to set up your site so that you can properly track activity on your site
*Web sites are dynamic, that means if you want a site, you need to realize that you will need to tweak and change the content on a regular basis
*Website colors are very important, there are inappropriate colors
*Be careful when using Flash, remember who the sites for, your customers, not you
*If you are selling a retail product, focus on educating your consumers on solutions

I'd be happy to talk to you about my experience and what I've learned. I had some bozo tell me that Joomala was a great way to go, he was an idiot. The problem with website designers is that there really are only a handful that know what they are doing and can provide you with accurate information.

Here's my contact info, jprpich@talentblueprint.com
By the way if you go to my site, www.talentblueprint.com, you'll find the site our first venture into designing our own with a little bit of help from a designer.
We are getting to launch our new site in the next week or two, it's significantly better. Although we spent $750 to develop our first site, the new site will cost us $3,000 and that seems to be the average price for a site, again, it depends on the nature of complexity.

Lynn,

A few more things; there are basically three roles involved with any website:

The marketer - the individual who understands why it's being designed and what it needs to do for your customers.

The designer - the person who makes it look good and come to life.

The programmer - the person who makes all the complex functionality work in the background.

For simple sites a programmer is not needed. There should always be a marketer (presumably you, in this case) and a designer.
John has some great tips!

Cheers,
Kevin

Lynne, you can use my design brief outline to give you a good idea of what it takes to develop a good business website.

http://dewlillydesign.com/creative-brief-outline/DewLillyDesigndotCom-Creativ...

Please consider hiring a professional, like I said, you don't have to start with the most expensive website. A good web designer will be able to guide you and provide you with the best solution suited to your actual budget. I have over 10 years experience in user and search engine friendly web design and development, so I know what I'm talking about.

Hi There,

My organization is designed to help small business owners get the boost they need. I would love to chat with you about the different opportunities the NASE can offer to you including a free website, with membership, customized to your liking. The membership is $45/month and includes TONS more than a free website.

You also will receive insured health benefits, life insurance, prescription drug card, Roadside Assistance, access to consultants for free (tax, estate, shop talk).. You can apply for a grant and your "future entrepenuers" headed off to college would be eligible for scholarships. You can even get your company featured in Self-Employed magazine that is distributed to 250,000 self employed individuals nationwide. That's just the beginning.

If I can help you in any way, please feel free to call me at the office: 847-466-1647 or email at rfortner@naseadmin.org. Check us out at www.nase.org.

Warm Regards,

Robynn Fortner
Sales Associate #: RF6554
rfortner@naseadmin.org

John - I will have to disagree with you on Joomla. Your web site based on Joomla looks fine, and it could have a lot of improvements. It's hard to argue with the 10's of thousands of web sites that are out there based on Joomla. Or other CMS systems as well.

It's a different product, it may not have worked for you, but it works for many. There are lots of Fortune xx companies that use it as an example.

Picking a template as a starting point, and having it developed into something unique for your business can be cost effective. Many small business's don't want to spend $750 to develop their first site, which may operate as a simple online business card.

As a business, you have to decide what the web site represents - is it a simple business card, is it an ecommerce site, is it a place to market your services. There are many ways to accomplish all of these. The first thing anyone should do is get themselves educated on the many ways to do things and make a good decision based on the needs of your own company.

My coworker who worked as freelance web designer before joining www.workingpoint.com just wrote this amazing blog post "3 internet web presence tips for business websites" It's a must read if you are thinking about building a website for your business. http://www.workingpoint.com/blog/2010/08/12/3-internet-web-presence-tips-for-...

godaddy.com

Hey Lynn,
If you have a tight budget, I recommend www.weebly.com. The website is so easy to use and they have great drag and drop features. Additionally, they have built in SEO tools you can use. Here's a site I like, using weebly - www.artandwinefestivals.com. Best of luck!

Hi,

I've done a couple Microsoft 5W/25 Webinairs on the fundamentals of a website, copy, SEO and other elements that might be helpful if you're starting off on a web project.

To this discussion I'd add that in most cases building the website is the easy part. Keeping it fresh, up to date and well ranked in the search results is the hard part. Pick a CMS or system you're really comfortable with because if it's a pain for you that will be one more impediment to keeping it up to date.

http://www.prontomarketing.com/blog/

Why Getting Your Online Marketing Right Matters
http://www.prontomarketing.com/blog/page/4/

5W25 Webinair - Building Your Online Marketing Engine
http://www.prontomarketing.com/2009/09/24/webinair-building-your-online-marke...

5W25 Webinair Building Your Online Marketing Engine Advanced Strategies
http://www.prontomarketing.com/2010/02/12/5w25-building-your-online-marketing...

Our packages starts from 2.2$ a month. check out our services from our website.
http://www.99rupeeswebsite.com/

Make sure to claim your profile on Manta.com. It's free and can act as your web presence until your full fledged site is up. Manta has 18 million monthly visitors and can likely get your profile highly ranked in the major search engines.