So you want to build a website and at this point you may be very excited. There seems to be so much opportunity online that it seems that you cannot go wrong. You read all those sales pages out there telling you that you only need work fifteen minutes a day and you will make thousands.

Forgive me I am being a little dramatic but I think you get the picture.

The solid fundament when it comes to building websites is to understand why people go online. Number one they go online for information. This information can be entertaining or solution orientated. It can also be sought out for research purposes.

So the first question is which category do you fall into? Now let me give you that tip. If you are interested in a subject lets take health as an example its imperative at the outset to have an open mind.

What you think may work, may not so you have to be prepared for that. Secondly you need to make sure and research thoroughly so that when you make the decision you can at least know that you have done your homework and therefore your odds of success are far greater.

Let me tell you what happened to me. I went out bull headed and just picked a topic that I was interested in and was not adaptable at all. Then I just built a site and put a lot of work into it but got very little results. Then of course I lost motivation and before you know it I almost got burnt out.

I cannot tell you how depressing it is when your dream of working online becomes a nightmare of failure.

To conclude keep it simple, be adaptable, focus heavily on research and understand that it takes work so don't be easily influenced by all sorts of hype that will in essence only distract you.

Web design for a competitive business isn't easy, especially when you add e-commerce (the buzzword for buying and selling online) to the mix. Thankfully, many service providers have basic web hosting templates available to their customers at little to no cost depending on your package. More complex templates can be quite expensive. Companies that provide hosting with templates make setting up and maintaining an e-commerce website possible for people without the expertise to do it themselves and without the money to hire a professional to design their site from the ground up.

When purchased separately from your web hosting package, a template can run anywhere from $20 for a basic, simple web template and well into the hundreds of dollars for a more complex, custom design. For the majority of small business owners, basic templates designed for businesses are usually a safe bet.

An e-commerce template may include basic pages, search and navigation tools such as a virtual shopping cart, but it will be up to you to find your own online payment processing - most often through a third party provider such as PayPal. A web search for "online payment processing" will provide you with several options.

As an alternative, you might want to consider a turnkey solution such as eBay Stores or Yahoo! The designs of sites like these make e-commerce solutions for small business accessible to everyone. Be sure to read the find print about transaction fees and other costs before you decide.

Questions to Ask about Functionality

1. Does the shopping cart accept debit cards and online checks?
2. Is there a limit to the number of products, services or categories you can set up?
3. Does the site offer automatic notification of orders and transactions?

Questions to Ask about Cost

1. What are the basic monthly fees?
2. Are fees charged on a per transaction basis?
3. Is there a setup fee? If so, what is it?
4. How are taxes handled?

Talk to other business owners about their choices and do your homework. The right solution is out there for you, you just have to be willing to do what it takes to find it!

Before you build any website it is important to sit back and think about exactly what you want to achieve. This will help you to stay focused on your objective.

Now I am going to presume that you want your site to make you some money. Wile it is nice to make money if this is your only objective you may face many challenges ahead. The reason is because you may find the level of motivation may dwindle if you do not start making money quickly.

What I want to emphasize is simplicity. Keep it simple. Do not over complicate the process. To create and effective website you need to understand why people use the internet.

Our main goal when we go online is to get information for one reason or another. This may be for research or entertainment purposes. However the premise remains the same. One way or another your site will need to provide content relevant to the individuals search. This content can be provided by audio, video or written means. The fact is that it has to be relevant in order to be effective.

We all know how we feel when we find what we are looking for. This builds credibility and as a result the recommendations you make will be followed which means you will make money.

The bottom line is that we all want results and desire to achieve a certain outcome. You need to know what your visitor's wants and needs are then address it and provide solutions. Communicate with your visitors in a way that makes sense to them and provide logical steps that they can follow.

As for the technical aspects of building a site the good news is that there are many website building software tools out there that can help with this even if you have no technical knowledge. So don't sweat the small stuff.