If you have decided your business needs a website, there are several ways to create a web presence. The good news is that some of them can be very affordable.

Depending on the type of business, your options may include a blog, auction site, niche mall or coop, online storefront, or traditional dot com website. Many businesses include more than one type of website in their marketing plan. The goal is to attract as many potential customers as possible.

A blog can be an effective low-cost alternative to having a website for some small businesses. Direct farm marketers, performing artists, and consultants, for example, can use a blog to let existing and potential customers keep up with their portfolio or current activities. A blog can also be used by a business to provide ‘What’s New’ content, product support, or a personal feel to a website. For many small businesses personal relationships set them apart from a "faceless" large organization. Blogs are very popular and can help drive traffic to a website.

Niche malls or coops are a way to for groups of sellers to market their products without having their own individual websites. Buyers like niche malls because one website directs them to many options. A niche mall can be regional or topical community of interest. www.LocalHarvest.org is an example of a niche mall; offering a nationwide directory of small farms, farmers markets, and other local food sources. The online store helps small farms develop markets for some of their products beyond their local area.

Auction sites such as eBay are very popular with small businesses that want to sell on the Internet without developing their own website. In some cases, online auctions are used instead of having a website or even a physical store. An example is antique dealers that buy items at estate sales and sell them through an online auction. Businesses with just a few items to sell, especially if each one is different (such as collectibles or used items,) can make good use of individual auctions. Auction sites can be a useful addition to websites and brick and mortar stores. eBay’s Seller Central (http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral) is a good starting point for learning how to sell on eBay.

There are many small businesses that sell through an online storefront. An online storefront lets you have a professional looking storefront in someone else’s store. Online storefronts are easy to set up and can be affordable. Yahoo!, Amazon and eBay all have stores. See eBay’s What's an eBay Store (http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/start.html) to learn how to set up an online store on eBay. Even larger businesses take advantage of Yahoo’s e-commerce capability. For example, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream uses a Yahoo shop for the ecommerce transaction part of their site only – the part that sells the ice cream and takes the money. They don’t have to deal with having to have their own secure server that way. Most small businesses should look at outsourcing the transaction portion of their website.

If you think you need or want a traditional dot com website, you can develop it yourself or hire a web developer.

It’s not a good idea to develop your own website. Spend your time on your business, not website coding. If you insist on developing your own, you will need to learn HTML or purchase and learn to use website development such as Dreamweaver. Take a community education class to see what you’re in for before you invest too much effort.

Consider hiring a web designer and perhaps a graphics designer and ecommerce specialist. You need to choose carefully though, because they may lack small business knowledge and there can be a wide variation in price, experience and quality of work. Price can be a very poor indicator of quality. Be sure to talk to other customers. Look for a designer who has created sites for businesses like yours. A good web designer can save you time and money. Some designers specialize in blog or auction site development. If you hire a designer, make sure you have an agreement on how your site will be updated. Will they train you to do this or will they do it for you and at what cost?

To help you find the right designer for your needs see Planning Your Website: Questions to ask a Web designer

Planning Your Website (pdf)

If you’re serious about growing your business, you are going to want a presence on the web.