Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 3: Building a Site without Spending a Fortune

In This Chapter

• Planning a well-structured business Web site
• Finding out how to build your own Web site
• Using HTML commands effectively
• Building Web pages with specific software tools
• Hiring the right professional to help you design your site
• Working with your professional designer
• Providing the right information at the right time

In the early days of the Internet, simply having a Web site was a way to differentiate your business from the competition. As interest in the Web developed and grew, companies of all shapes and sizes focused their efforts on capturing people's attention with Web sites. Because of this growth in online competition, planning a site and building a distinctive design and proposition became increasingly important. After all, an outstanding site encourages current customers to stay with your business and promotes your site's presence to the new shoppers who come online every day.

The same basic principles of Web site design apply as much now as they did when the Web took off in the mid-1990s. Technologies used on the Web might come and go, but you don't have to include the latest and greatest technology on your site. Customers are drawn to sites that are simple, focused, easy to use, well organized, and useful. Everything else is just sound and fury.

In this chapter, we present the steps for creating a Web site that serves your business and your customers. We direct you to spend some time defining exactly ...