OK, I am writing this article for those who are interested in starting a journey on the web.  There are many arts to an amazing and effective web site and the first part is knowing what you want to see.

As a consultant I meet with a lot of people who an in small business and want a lot of bang for their buck, and usually dont have a lot of bucks to invest.  Here is what I tell them;

1) Simple can save you time and money.
- You don’t have to have a super complicated web site and all the features you see on the web for your website to do the job you need it to.  While all the “bells and whistles” are nice, they usually cost more and can be added later.
- Use free stuff, there is a lot of it out there, most consultants who are worth there paycheck can help you find it
- If you know what you want to see on your site build in it a word document or draw it on a sheet of paper, take the guess work out of it.  The more time you invest before the less money you will spend in the tech teams guess work.

2) Do something that YOU can maintain
- Grated there will always be places that a little help can be used, and at those times you can get your tech guy to help.  However, you want to have the ability to do you updates and keep your site current with out a huge monthly fee.  There are services out there that will allow you to update your site as easily as sending an e-mail.  (wordpress is one of them)

3) Hire people who you can trust
- Hire some one who has worked for some one you know and shows good results.  The kids who are graduating from design school may be cheap, but remember you get what you pay for.  Usually that $ per hour is there becuase they are worth the extra $20 it would cost you.  Some times that few hundred dollar savings can cost you hundreds or even thousands in lost customers or lost time.