Concentrate on Your Brand When Designing Your Website

Decide on a logo first

After your initial one-page website is up and running, you need to start thinking about what your site's going to look like when it's 'done'. The first thing you'll need is a professional logo: something that you'll be happy using on a business card and letterhead in the future. You can either design one yourself in a program like Fireworks or Photoshop, or have an experienced online company like LogoWorks or LogoMaker design one for you. The great thing about getting a logo designed for you is that it's done by a professional and you can concentrate on what you do best. Once your logo's done, it's much easier to come up with a website design that suits your corporate image.

Decide on your software and support requirements next

If you're looking to sell a product online, you should consider either Prostores, or Yahoo! Business Web Hosting. Both services integrate simple design templates and e-commerce facilities that don't require a technical background. If you are more service-orientated, and don't require shopping carts and merchant capabilities, you are probably better off going for one of the other hosts reviewed in other articles.

To design or not to design... that is the question

You may wish to have a go at designing the website yourself. The most popular software tool is Dreamweaver. There are also free options available such as Web Easy Professional Express 6 or EZ SiteMaker. If you're on a tight budget, but still not too keen on designing the website yourself, you may wish to use a service called RentaCoder. I've personally had a lot of great success through it. They ask people to 'post a project' and invite coders / designers from around the world to bid on carrying out the project.