Most businesses only require a simple “online brochure” describing their products and location/contact information.  

It’s relatively easy to update a basic website like this yourself.  If you have ever tinkered with your ad copy you may want to give it a go.  

If this seems too daunting you should be able to hire someone to design and host it for a year for under $500.00.  Making a quick website takes a few moments; assuming you have the right equipment.  Sometimes it's worth it to let the pro's take on the task; and this is an advertising cost that is "one-time" with a small annual fee afterwards, assuming you don't have too many updates. 

If you want to get into "e-commerce" or selling products over the internet there are a few things to keep in mind, which we cover here.  

FOR THE WEB MARKETER

The idea that you are going to be successful by hiring someone else to do the work while you sit in the background and “pull the strings” is laughable.  Imagine deciding to open a garage, then deciding you then have to hire a mechanic to run it.  Sure it’s possible, but if you want to be successful you probably want to be experienced in the service you are delivering and own the equipment required. 

Using a middleman for the equipment or a hosted service is the easy way out; but you are not delivering any real value.  If there is a problem and can’t, or don’t know how to resolve the issue how long do you think you will be in business?

This is the only strategy if you want to deliver content “for free”, without paid subscriptions.  How else is it going to get done?  By stealing content from someone else?  Buying then re-branding adding lots of popups?  See Don’t Be Evil.  

No, do it yourself if you want to be successful.

You also want to keep your operation lean and mean, even if you get funded. Some of the most complex websites on the Internet are managed by a few people.  Other smaller websites seeing 1000 hits a day have a staff of 10.  If you want to go from 0-1 million in a year, which is going to be more PROFITABLE at the end of the day?  Yes, perhaps the one with the larger staff has a richer “look and feel” or has more features, but the one seeing 1000 hits a minute is doing so for a reason.  Look at websites you visit often for clues to this riddle.

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