Internet for Business
Building your own business website offers important advantages
Home  >  Your Business Website  >  Building Your Business Website Building Your Business Website After you’ve planned your business website (identified the site’s goals, intended audience etc.) and decided on the type of site you want (the design and lay-out), it’s time to build. At this point you have to make a couple of crucial decisions. The first is: Do it yourself, or outsource? The answer to this question will in turn generate further options. But back to that all-important main question. At first glance, the fact that you’re even reading this page suggests you’re relatively new to the technical side of the Internet and wouldn’t dream of trying to build your own website. However, it’s not as complex as you may think and anyone with patience, ability to learn new things and who likes a challenge will be able to do it. There are millions of websites out there that have been built by “newbies”, plenty of whom are not teenage propeller-heads. Web Building Software Available There’s a wide variety of software that makes it easy to build a site without knowing any HTML, the fairly simple “programming” language in which web pages are built. HTML at its simplest is just a set of tags or instructions that format the web page - and it’s fairly intuitive and easy to learn. For example, to create a new paragraph, you use the tag “p” within angled brackets. But, as mentioned, there is software available - called WYSIWYG (”what you see is what you get”) - like MS FrontPage or Dreamweaver - that don’t require any knowledge of HTML. The main - and very powerful - advantage of building your own site is that you have total and final control over it - you’re not beholden to anyone. Many are the business owners who’ve outsourced their web building, only to deeply regret this when they find they have no control and the person or company that built the site goes out of business or, worse, holds them to ransom, refusing to make changes or updates unless they’re paid exorbitant fees. Website Different to Printed Brochure Remember, a website is not like a printed brochure that’s a one-off event. Your website should be a permanent fixture, growing and evolving as the business does. Can you afford to let something this important be controlled by an outside party? Of course there are many reputable, long-established web designers (individuals and companies) in most towns and cities who reliably maintain their clients’ sites. Unfortunately, because of the newness of the Internet, there are also sharks and unreliable whiz kids offering their services. The latter can be particularly dangerous, as they love using the very latest, cutting-edge technology for its own sake, so you end up with a website full of bells and whistles but that’s entirely inappropriate for your intended audience and also nearly impossible to update or fix when broken. If you decide to outsource, carefully research the service provider - make sure they’ve been around for a while, check previous work they’ve done and contact their existing clients. Ask questions - is the person/business reliable, do they make changes and updates promptly when requested, are their charges consistent? Site Build It If, on the other hand, you want to look further at doing it yourself, there are hundreds of small business owners who, with no previous experience, have built successful sites using Site Build It!, a complete set of tools that takes you by the hand and guides you each step of the way. Site Build It! (SBI!) is designed not only for those wanting to start up their own online businesses but, importantly, also for small businesses serving local clients. Next ... About Domain Names
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