If you don't
know HTML or even worst you don't know what HTML is, you
need help. Well, only if you want to publish a web site
of course. The age old question is who can help me and how
much does it cost? I have good news and bad news. First,
you can help yourself, but it will cost you some money.
Are there
free web design services or software available. Yes and
no. If they are free they are loaded with advertising and
other stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but
you pretty much put yourself into a disadvantage from the
start.
Remember
you first goal is to drive traffic to your web site. Unless
you just doing it for fun and your family. To attract visitors
you must be able to stand out from the crowd for the search
engines. No matter what you hear or other 'experts' are
saying. Search engines are the livelihood of your business.
If nobody knows that you're existing you don't have a business,
period!
Let's
clear the first misperception, fancy web sites with
off the wall graphics are nice to look at, but they
hardly sell anything. As a small business most of
the time you have only one shot at a sale. A visitor
finds your web site and he/she either buys or leaves.
You don't get another chance.
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Of course
there's always an exception. If you are creative enough
to create a content rich web site with information that
will be refreshed and added, visitors will come back to
see what you have to say. But for all the newbies this is
out of reach at least for now.
Let's
focus on how to create a web site that sells without
any knowledge? First you need to learn how it all
flows together. The key to success are so called
mini sites. Please read this book "How
to create killer mini sites that sell like crazy"
to get the basics.
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Now you
have the knowledge to put your business on the internet
map and you still don't need to know anything about HTML.
Most web hosting companies offer web design software with
their services. Take a look at my
recommended
web hosting companies.
My favorite
tool is MS Frontpage. I know there are cooler editors out
there for less money or even freeware. Well, I like the
all-in-one feel and the ability to focus on the content
and not the technical implementation. Yes MS Frontpage generates
a lot of unnecessary HTML code, but you can safely ignore
this for now. There are methods to correct this.
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