In this article we will cover the advantages and some of the details that you should think about as a small business or home base business owner before you create a website. Also we will include some information that you should examine for web hosting for your company’s webpage.
By putting your company on the web it opens your company up to the large market the whole world of people on the internet. Now even though you do this it does not translate in to money right away and nor does it mean that you will be swamped with orders the next day. Pretty much there is a good chance that your business web link will just be buried by all the other existing websites and it takes time and lots of people visiting your site to even show up on the web search engines like Yahoo and Google. What the website does is help market your business and gives you another selling tool for your business products and services. It also provides easy to find important information about you and your company for potential investors and customers that are not sitting in front of you at that time.
Down the road it can be a good way to retail a products and services but first you have to let it build on the World Wide Web. Yes sometimes you can help speed up this process but it will cost you more money and you have to make sure that it is being done properly. Even though putting your business on the World Wide Web can be great for your business it can also be bad if it is not handled properly and you pay fee after fee and you don’t see any return for the money you put into that part of the business.
I have seen what I call bad Web exposure where you have companies that offer promotion programs offering high level web traffic and exposure which can turn out to be nothing more then programs that truly does nothing for your business in any way but just puts your business into the hole which can get really get deep if your not watching the promotion program your company is having run by the company performing the service.
So at this point your thinking maybe this is a good idea or a bad idea and to be honest you truly have to look at your business first before you move on. After you look at your core business then look at how a Website may or may not benefit your business. Now I can tell you that in most case it will truly can benefit your small business or home office if for no other reason then just to promote and present your business in a positive way after all there is a good chance that your customers, business partners and potential investors have access to the Web access and a nicely designed web page be a good starting place to send them.
Usually you can setup a website either on your own using and HTML editor or FrontPage. There lots of free HTML editors and it is pretty easy software to learn. You can of course learn from other web pages just find a few and use them as a sample.
However if you’re a busy trying to run your business then it might be quicker and much easier to just hire someone to create your webpage. There is a good chance that you can find someone that will do the work for you of course the price will very depending on what all you want on your webpage. I believe that you can get a pretty basic website with key things on it for around $100 but that is just an estimate.
Once you got an initial webpage ready you need to find a web hosting company for your company’s webpage. As you looking for a web hosting company I would recommend some key features besides the price to keep in mind. The first thing I would look at is how long the web hosting company has been in business the reason for this is that there are lots of new start up hosting companies these days and not all of them have been around long enough to know how good of a service they provide also the longer the hosting company has been around the more stable they are usually and have a good financial business. I also recommend looking at reviews for web hosting companies by others it give you a good start.
Another thing to keep in mind is once you have a few Web hosting companies in mind look at how much support they provide along with assistance on setting your site. I also would look for service they provide for tracking site statistics for your site.
The next thing I would look at is the services that are provide for the money they charge. Take a look at the server space that they will give you along with how much bandwidth just to name a couple of items. If you are planning on selling goods or services through your site they you need to look at the E-commerce capabilities and how easy it is for you to add-on to your website.
In conclusion putting your small business or home based business on the web is good way to promote your business in many different ways. Although there is cost involve if done properly a well designed and properly promoted webpage can really help your company.