Let's begin with a little history. Many years ago, when the web was up and coming and you needed to be on it, I paid someone to build a site for me. Afterwards, I could say, "Yeah, I have a site, go to -" and then I would name my site a feel a hit of pride. I'd also get satisfaction when my webmaster (if you could call him that; I don't know that I would in retrospect, but that's another story) occasionally forwarded me an email of an interested visitor. My satisfaction was short-lived, as you might imagine. I soon began to understand the power of the web and found the sad reality that my "webmaster" was getting all my emails from my website visitors to be annoying. I had him change this so that the emails came to me. He charged me a one-time fee for getting him to do this.

Okay, so these days it is not quite that bad, is it? Your webmaster or whoever is doing the "web thing" for you isn't charging you for every little service? Excuse me. I'll reserve my rant for another article, or possibly a blog entry.

So anyway, I fired my webmaster. I built my own webpage. I did this - of all things - with Microsoft Publisher. Yeah, well, it worked - in that I was able to build a site and, with some effort, get it on the web. I won't go into why you shouldn't try this, kids, at home. I was at home when I tried it, sure. But I don't suggest building a site with Publisher. It can be done, but don't do it.

One thing that happens - talk about annoying: The site crams all against the left side of the page. There's nothing you can do to change that. You might as well type out onto the web page "Look, Ma, I can create a website using Publisher." Don't do it.

Well, I knew at the time I shouldn't be messing around with Publisher. It's great for putting together a book or something for print. It's not good for websites. I had just been so excited because I had created a downloadable book for lulu.com. Publisher was great for laying out a book. I had so much momentum...

I put the Publisher site up, and thought I had done a pretty good job, considering that everything was crammed up to the left of the screen. I had yet to become a blogger, and I had yet to realize the importance of tagging and so on. All that important "extra" stuff. I'm joking. Writing tags is not extra. It's essential. So is the blog - on the website.

Then I bought FrontPage and a book and... That's all she wrote. I learned FrontPage and I haven't tried anything else out since. Why not? So far I don't need to use the fantastic Dreamweaver that everyone talks about. Oh, I can't do Flash on FrontPage? Uh - yes you can. Easily.

I continue to believe that content is all-important. Not bells. Not whistles. Content. I don't care what kind of a site you are putting up. Well, okay, I wouldn't necessarily use FrontPage for every circumstance. But for you and me, the individual or small company that wants to be up and shining on the web, FrontPage is the clear answer. At least it was for me. As I say, I haven't looked back since.

One needn't learn the bells and whistles. One certainly needn't incorporate dhtml or whatever that code is that will make letters pop and fly about. Old browsers can't see it, and new browsers - mine, at least - don't want to see it.

I have affiliated with companies. That is, I've tried to turn a dollar by putting them up on my site, a link or banner or what have you. Let me say that what I don't like are the banners that flicker and blink and all that junk. If I want the Las Vegas experience, I'll go there.

Just give me content. FrontPage can handle that and handle it well. You want to be able to upload Flash, for sure. FrontPage can do it. You want to be able to get as much information on your website with as few bytes as possible. FrontPage can do this as well as any program. So, I'm happy. Are you happy - yet?

The key element to your success is you. It is what you do today that will determine whether you succeed or fail. Beyond that it comes down to consistency. It's what you do every day that will bring results. Sporadic efforts here and there will not yield success long term.

So your first objective is to figure out what you are going to build a site around. Write down your interests and various topics that may be relative to those interests. Once you have a list then its time to start researching.

The key to effective research is focus. Focus can be achieved by understanding what your objectives are and what can help you achieve those objectives. As you know you need traffic to your site to have any hope of making money. No traffic means no money.

So you will need to research markets that have a high level of activity online. The ideal scenario is to find keywords that get searched a lot and have little competition. With that said you have to be careful.

Competition in actual fact is good because it means that there is money to be made in that market. So what you need to do is find ways to enter the market using less competitive keywords yet still be able to generate income relative to the main keyword.

For example with weight loss there are many ways to enter that market without going after the main keyword. Example; lose belly fat, or lose weight by eating healthy foods and so on. I think you get the idea.

Once you have the keywords that you can compete with you will then need to build your site using each keyword to build a page around. You will need to structure your web pages so that you get the right keyword density.

To conclude there are lots of site builders out there to help you with this. The one I had the most success with was site build it. They cover all of the above and also take care of the hosting. This way all you have to do is engage in your passion.

You can definitely generate more business with a quality website. This may be the first line of communication between you and potential guests. A user friendly, well designed website is one of the greatest assets imaginable today for any business, organization or community group.

The great advantage of website development for a company is that the website will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and can be viewed from anywhere in the world. So anyone can collect suitable information from the website at any time.

In today's business environment and to beat the competition large companies definitely need to develop a website. Many business owners use the excuse that their business is "word-of-mouth" and they do not need a website. But a great way to reinforce the personal recommendations of other clients is through professional website development.

Website development helps your company to increase product knowledge, maintain communication between you and potential clients, sell your products or services, generate leads for the business, increase the popularity of your company and much more.

Website development could provide all the information about their business, their products and also have provisions to sell their products online. Customers could be kept informed of up and coming promotions and product developments.

In the world today, not having a website is like not being listed in the telephone book. A website provides added visibility and credibility among consumers. When searching for a web designing company you will want to make sure they are able to provide everything you need. If your website is e-commerce based, you will want to make sure your web design company offers more advanced features such as search engine optimization (SEO). If your business is still lacking a website it is not too late to get started. Building and marketing a website can be done at a very affordable rate. Invest in your business today.