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!

Lex Parsimoniae is Latin for "Law of Parsimony", which pulled out into its simplest form is the The Law of what can be spared, should.

This is a theory that I have been studying for the past year and through observation believe that this can be applied to all situations that require a more efficient, functional solution. This paradigm has many names, but is best know as Occam's Razor. His razor suggests that when resources are limited or when speed of function is essential, design / complexity trade-offs should be based on what does the least harm to the probability of success, however that is defined.

Form is Function

There is a school of thought that beauty in design results in good function, but I prefer to subscribe the fact that just concentration on the functionality will by its very nature, create its own aura of design. Sometimes, the focus on functional efficiency inspires a feeling that goes beyond aesthetics and ultimately give us the sense that its form is of a higher echelon.

Barrier To Entry

The brain is an amazing piece of kit. One of its most amazing functions is its ability to optimise when processing data. Each brain has been trained over many years (or maybe it inherently has the ability) to simplify individual objects into groups. Instead of seeing each individual blade of grass, the mind sees a field. Millions of pieces of data grouped into one object because it knows, to comprehend millions of pieces of grass would take and enormous amount of effect. Effect that could be focused elsewhere. So it generalises to make life easier. This sort of information overload can happen in design as well; Too much will distract from your likely objective. Remember that 7 Second Rule? If your web app or website has 7 seconds to impress then wouldn't you prefer showing off your functional muscles? How useful your app is? and not long it takes to load the really cool (bandwidth crunching) design? Remember how it easy it is to make your mind up about someone when you them for the first time. Same rules apply.

Just Do It!

What are your objectives and goals? Hopefully, when developing a web app or website, to make your (or your users) life easier! And let's remember, this 'thing' we call the Internet is broken. So don't break any further with dodgy CSS and bloated javascript. Functional Turn Around is the most impressive aspect for me these days. Spend time developing how the app works, refine it, refine it again, then again. Then when it works, design around the edges. If you like Latin phrase then try this one:

"entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem", or "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity"

For more information about Occam's Razor and various other development theories, read this Design and Development Blog at www.gammatan.co.uk

Internet really is the money-making, cash-spitting, wealth-building profit machine, just like the dreamers said it was. However, not many people realized this huge earnings potential. The biggest problem they faced is just that they do not know how to build website from scratch. And their lack of knowledge about HTML often holds them back to build a successful money-making website.

This article is about that, teaching you how to build website from scratch without HTML knowledge at all.

Let's get going...

List Everything You Know About Anything

The best capital in the online world is not about money, but knowledge instead. The good news about making money online is that, you can monetize your knowledge instantly. No matter how useless you think about anything you know, there will always be someone out there that is looking for that information. The best part is that you can get paid by just sharing the information.

You can start by listing everything you know about anything. This can be an activity that you love doing during your leisure time, something that you did as a part time job or techniques that you had learnt while working in the office. Divide those subject matters into several topics and rank them from the theme you are most comfortable with. It is a good idea to begin with the top preference first.

Research The Most Profitable Keywords

Refine your preferred topics by doing some keyword research. You can use the free keyword tools like Overture Keyword Tool to get started or some paid keyword tools like Wordtracker to dig even deeper. After collecting all those possible keywords, continue researching its profitability by looking at the possible affiliate products as well as the cost-per-click (CPC) in the Google AdWords.

Moving forward, you will have a list of the most profitable keywords and the "not so profitable" one. Rank them accordingly and start structuring your web design concept. Then, locate the most profitable keywords in the Tier-2 pages; where they are accessible from the homepage, and the rest in the Tier-3 pages. By doing so, web pages with the profitable keywords are able to enjoy maximum exposure.

Build Web Pages With WYSIWYG Softwares

By now you must already have a concrete web structure. Remember it by heart because you are about to build a website that will make money 24/7. What left is just a great content that will makes your website stands out than the rest. From now on, focus on building great contents and keep on creating them so that the visitors able to keep in touch with you in the long run.

However, you need a website builder that able to connect your contents with the visitors into a presentable or user-friendly format. You can start building your profitable website with Site Build It. In fact, it comes with paid keyword research tool, hosting, domain names, auto-responder and marketing tips for free. You don't have to worry about how to build website from scratch without HTML knowledge anymore.