Let's say you have a website. You probably feel pretty good about it. You have a presence. People can find you. You're out there. Sure, these are all good things; the only problem is everyone has a website. A website is the bare minimum.

A website is only just enough.

As a small business owner, as an entrepreneur as an upstart you must standout. You are the underdog. Underdogs don't out hustle the more established folks by doing just enough. And if you only have a website, you are only doing just enough.

Want to build your business and exceed your goals?

Do more than just enough.

Hold on, let's get down to it. If you consider how advanced the internet has become in just the last 5 years, if you only have a company website you aren't doing just enough.

You're doing less than enough.

You're doing enough to exist, but not enough to excel.

You're doing enough to be counted, but not enough to go over the top.

I'm sorry. I really like you. I wish you the best, but the truth is you're behind the curve.

You can change it, but to do that, first you need to change how you see the web and the possibilities. You've got to decide if you're serious about your business? Is your business concept a winner or a loser? Can it work? Is it working? What to do about it? More of the same isn't the answer. Making your website more pretty isn't going to cut it. You need to diversify.

I may be blunt, but I'm not exaggerating. Like John McCain says, "Time for some straight talk".

A business website should be only one piece of your web presence. You should also have a presence on every social networking website out there. You should have articles related to your business all across the information superhighway. You should belong to all the major (and some not so major) business networking sites. You should have a video on YouTube, a Face book, a MySpace and a Squidoo page. You should be everywhere other business owners congregate, share ideas, exchange referrals and talk shop.

You must be there.

No excuses.

No exceptions.

Sure, it takes time to set up marketing mechanisms across the many websites that are available, but it's time well invested because your company website isn't the end all to be all of generating buzz and finding leads on the internet, your website is just the beginning.

Make a commitment to your business and cease and desist looking at those social networking sites as options. They aren't options, they are necessities.

If you need more reasons to justify putting your resources into more than a company website, just take a look at Barack Obama's surge. Obama-mania owes much of its energy and support to the social networking sites that it uses. Get involved and secure some of that same viral power for your business. 99% of it is free and 100% of it is good business.

Welcome to the first day of your new way of looking at promoting your business on the net.

Go get started yesterday.

Pay for a web designer or do it yourself? Can small business owners really design a website or is it a job for the pro's?

Most consumers look on the internet before going to a store. Sometimes it is their only stop: they research, compare and buy online. It goes without saying then that for a small business to reach its potential market, it should have an internet presence.

Small business operators do not often have a dedicated IT person on staff - in the past this is the person who would be given the job of building a website. It's great news then that there are now beginner-friendly website building packages on the market which are perfect for the small business person's use.

Data is entered into your web pages as one would using a word processor - with modern easy to use web builders, there is no need to know any html whatsoever.

The tutorials provided with almost all software suppliers take the novice through the process of building a website in a non-technical, easy to understand way. Having completed the tutorial, one is equipped with more than enough knowledge to launch straight into a website build.

Not all website software programs are easy to use. Small business operators do not need fully blown web design industry solutions due to the steep learning curve. One feature to look for is a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor. This simply means you type on the page as you see it.

There are expenses involved in publishing your own website - you get nothing for nothing. Apart from the cost of the software (there are free web builders however they are more difficult to use or too basic in features), a small business (or an individual or a large company) will need to register a domain name (less than $10) and find a web hosting service (around $8 per month).

Businesses should also set up a merchant's account from an organization like Paypal (free). Having a third party handle financial transactions is always reassuring for consumers and takes away an administration burden. When an item has been ordered via your website and paid for, Paypal advises you, with delivery instructions so that you can fulfill the order or if it is an electronic delivery, this part can be automated.

In any small business time is money, and the time spent learning a new skill like website building with easy to use software must be seen as a good investment. It is possible to build multiple websites so that you can have a website network feeding a central business. This is ideal for multi-brand retailers and multi-branch operators. This degree of control will reap rewards as your business grows and you build different websites to cater to changing needs.

Because you have built and are managing your website yourself, you are able to instantly react to changing trends and new opportunities. Avoid delays by not having to wait for your webmaster to make changes. Fresh content on your website is highly desirable.

Some website programs are specifically designed to assist the business person become an internet business marketer, and as your knowledge of web design grows, the more you will value search engine optimization and site map generation tools. Having a correctly designed site map helps search engines easily match your site to search requests.

If you decide to look at other ways to earn money through your website without doing a thing, you will no doubt look at including on your site some affiliate marketing and advertisements from non compete companies.

Features to look for:

Ideally you will have an instructional video, help desk support and forums. Look for testimonials from other business owners to see how they have applied the software.

Getting started is the next step once you arrive at the conclusion that a website is no longer a luxury - it is essential!

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.