In today’s economy a website is an absolute necessity. Entrepreneurs have a huge market within their reach if they can get to it. It is not necessary to hire a web developer to create an effective website, you can do it yourself with available software tools. First of all, review your business plan and focus on your target audience. What attracts their attention, what graphics (clip-art or digital photographs) will get their eye and pull them into your message, and what language do they speak (terminology, keywords etc.) are issues you should address at the start.

Most word processing software has the elements to create a basic web-page and save it in HTML, attach links and insert images. Clip-art is available for free on websites that can be found on the internet. Even photo editing programs are available for free and most are easy to use. You can make your own clip-art with a digital camera and a paint program. It’s worth the time investment to make your website unique and personal and even create your own logo. If this is a hobby site, then photos of your projects and creations are essential for display.

It is a very good idea to invest your development time in learning these basic programs since the more professional your website looks the better the chance you have competing for attention and page rankings. The best fonts to use are usually Arial and Verdana, they are the most readable and are used by many web developers. Spell check and grammar are essential to the best impression so make use of any guides your word-processing program has. Nothing can destroy the hard work done like mis-spells, poor grammar and punctuation and cookie-cutter graphics. The website has to stand apart to succeed.

Your website can be a work of art, a personal statement and an internet business card, all in one and you can do it for free.