Can anyone suggest how to go about making a web page for their business. I see there are all sorts of "web designers" on line, but not sure who to choose or who to stay away from. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am ready to get my web site going, thanks to all the information I have read here.

Joy

I started mine with yahoo small business. It provides email addresses and templates to help build your website.

Well, there are many avenues you can take. If you are going to go with someone to professionally design a web site for you, ask for references and to see web sites they have created (their portfolio).

My other idea is create a blog on a free blog site like wordpress.com. You can add pages to your blog....bam...instant web site (as instant as you can get without many other design programs, etc, anyway)! They have a variety of templates to choose from. I know there will be other great ideas from the rest of the VAs, so be sure to keep checking the thread. You can find loads of information and help about setting up a blog in the blog and blogging section on this forum.

Hope that helps a little.

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Darlene Victoria Gonzalez
The Voice & Vision Behind Your Business

Thank you Darlene for the information. I have never blogged or created a blog. I will investigage it and see how it works.

Joy

I'm not sure how much experience you have with HTML, but I had someone just design the basic template and graphics for me, and I edit the content myself. This is VERY learnable (I knew ZERO HTML before starting). And a cost effective method. You do need to subscribe to a hosting service and purchase a domain, but it beats paying $50 or more per page to have someone create every piece of the page. The result, is that I have a professional looking page, complete control over the content, and the ability to make changes as frequently as I like.

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Sarah Bernstein
Jackson Administrative Outsourcing
www.jacksonao.com

($50 per page would be a steal in terms of getting a site designed for you....)

As mentioned already, there are any number of ways you can approach this - for many new VAs starting a blog in lieu of a full-fledged site can be a good option, and as Darlene mentioned, can be totally free - especially if you choose a blog program like Wordpress that offers loads of free designs to house your blog in.

Your website should be as professional as you can afford to create - if that means paying someone to build it for you later on down the road but doing as much as you can on your own right now then go for it! As a business owner you're only empowering yourself when you learn as much as you can about creating a website.

There are also many free website building programs - just run a Google search to see what you can find, or check the previous threads in this section of the forums for more info on what others have used. Just be sure you select a system that does NOT place ads on your website - nothing detracts more from 'professional' than flashing banner ads at the top of a carefully crafted page about your business services.

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I started with using Wordpress for my site, since then I have turned that into my blog and now use Microsoft Office Live for my website. It is free to use and they also give you e-mail addresses to use with your site. For someone(me) who knows nothing about websites and HTML it was the way to go.

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Deb Frawley
Gem's Virtual Office

If you're interested in playing around a bit, you can download NVU for free (it's completely safe and free of adware, viruses, etc.).

If you're looking to have one built for you, you could look through the directory here - some of us do that type of thing.

I also agree with the WordPress blog idea. It's probably the easiest option to start with!

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Jeanne
NowAssistingYou.com
Virtual Assistant :: Web/Blog Design & Hosting :: Writer

Hi Tess,

I did do a google search for web creators, and Google has a "page maker" to create a website. I'm in the process of trying it out now. Perhaps after creating this, it will give me more insight on how to be creative in designing an eye catching website. Thanks for you help and to all others who have been brainstorming with me.

Joy

I used Microsoft Office live. They have several templates you can chose from. It is very easy to work with. I may change and go with something different later. My is the techonolgy field can do webpages and is very good, but he was business with work projects so I decided to do my own to get done faster. I do want to check the yahoo small business.

Lisa

I use web.com which is easy to use and $11.95/mo. My website is only temporary until I can hire a professional to design one.

The main thing, is to get your business on the web and tweak later. I have tweaked mine several times and still don't have it the way I want it.

Good luck!