New business web sites

Web sites have transformed my businesses probably more than anything else. It's like having extra members of staff who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to take enquiries, provide answers to questions and help assure potential clients that they will be more than satisfied if they do business with us.

My first web site was truly appalling though – it was set up through an Internet provider’s domain and was simply a one page leaflet at a really hard to remember address and was, frankly a waste of time.

If you have read my book Business Survival & Prosperity Guaranteed then you’ll know how I managed to get a great site set up for very little cost. When this was combined with Google Ad words I had an immensely powerful sales tool which could be fine-tuned with the delicacy of a scalpel, and where the flow of enquiries could be turned on or off like a tap.

But the problem was that my 'music' site (barndance.co.uk) had been set up by someone else. Although I can still edit the pages using my own software, and upload the revised pages via FTP (File Transfer Protocol), I cannot easily change the layout or structure of the site.

So when setting up the web site you are reading now, I was determined to use the best possible option right from the start. I would set up the site myself, but this time with as much help as I needed from experts, and with every stage laid out clearly – right from choosing the best domain name.

The system would have to let me access all of the website from any computer and make changes without using any specialist software, It was also essential that I would be able to quickly add, re-order or delete pages, and that changes were submitted immediately to the main search engines.

The site system I chose still does take a bit of time and effort to work through the stages, but help is available all along the way, and the result has been well worth it for me. I’d strongly suggest that you take the time to think just how a clear and focused site could benefit your venture.

I suggest you have at least a glance the system I am using to create and develop this site. In no way am I a 'techie', but the bulk of this site was planned, researched and built - complete with graphics, downloads, 'contact' us' and 'Share' buttons - by me, using the excellent package below:-

And to see examples of how other companies have set up web-based businesses with 'Site Build It', click here:-

For another example of a web site set up using this method, please have a look here at a new site for a specialist niche.

The basic site was researched, planned and set up over the 2009/10 Christmas break.