1. Does Your Business Need It ?

This may seem like a strange question when everybody else seems to have a wesbite. But do YOU need one ? You really neeed to answer two questions:

a. Will it help me achieve my business aims ?

b. Do my competitors have one ?

A business website is an asset and like any other asset it will require a substantial investment in time, money and maintenance to be successful. It's therefore important to establish early on whether such an investment is justified.

2. Do It Yourself or Hire Someone Else ?

This is perhaps the million dollar question when it comes to building a business website. Frankly speaking, if you're not sure, then the answer is ready made: Hire a web designer. The credibility of your business is just not worth the risk.

Sure, you can always get a WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor that'll practically build the site for you at a fraction of the cost but you just can't replace the experience and know-how of a qualified web designer.

Think about it, would you go ahead and build your car yourself to save on money ?

3. Which Web Host ?

For the general public to access your website you will need a web host, which is essentially your small piece of virtual real estate on a web server. It is usually quoted in Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB).

For most small businesses the most cost effective solution is a shared hosting package. Because you share webspace with other websites on the same server the cost of running the server is split among more clients.

Virtualisation technology ensures the smooth functioning of each website and most of the time the quality of your website will remain unaffected.

You will often find that Linux hosting packages offer the most