At this juncture, you have a big decision to make. Should you hire a professional web designer, or do it yourself? Hiring a professional can cost anywhere from $200 to $2,000 for a small business site, but having it done professionally can be a good investment.

(Interjection! - this discussion pertains to commercial sites. That is, sites where you are selling a product, accepting payments over the internet, etc. For any other site (personal, hobby, informational, etc), designing a website is fun! It's like scrap booking on the computer. If you get your kids to help - it is very legitimate school credit!)

There are three reasons for this. First (and least important), web design software isn't always cheap. A good choice for first-time web designers is Microsoft Frontpage. It's about as easy to design a website as it is to write a Word document with Frontpage. There are free packages out there as well - but you'll have to sift through a few half-baked applications before you find one that really works for you.

But having the software is only half of the story. This brings us to reason number two: to design a website, you need to know about image formats (bmp vs. jpg vs. gif vs. png), you need to know basic HTML (even though the web design software handles most of the HTML for you), you need to be able to upload files to the server via FTP, and a whole lot more. This isn't to discourage you from trying! Just be aware that if you want to get into it, you're really going to be getting your hands dirty in the realm of computer geekdom. If you're ready for that challenge, your first step should be to go to a bookstore and read straight through a book on the subject.

Third - even if you can design a site, that doesn't necessarily mean you should! I wouldn't try to drywall my own ceiling.. again. I learned that the hard way! People specialize for a reason - there is simply too much for you to do everything. A website is your interface to the public. You don't want it to look amateur.

BUT - If you feel you have the artistic and technical abilities and want to dive into it - W3 Schools is thee site for learning everything you need to know. Start with their Web Primer. And don't forget to go to the bookstore - as wonderful as the internet is for free tutorials and information, you'll get a much more cohesive, thorough feel for the subject by reading through a good book.

If you'd rather go the hired-professional route, here are a few pointers.

• Make sure the company you choose has a portfolio. Make sure you look at their portfolio, and look objectively at other sites they've designed. Do they look professional and trustworthy? Would you be comfortable submitting your credit card information to these sites?
• You will want to make sure the site is database driven so you will be able to make content changes/add new pages/write articles/add products/etc without the help of the designer. This can be done very cheaply, as there are many free software packages called "Content Management Systems" that your designer will be able to install with minimal work. Only expect to pay a lot if you're asking for highly customized database design.
• Watch out for amateur designers! Web design is an extremely easy business to get into, as there is very little capitalization cost. The result is that the market is super-saturated with designers who, bless their hearts, probably shouldn't be designing websites for money. Again, make sure to look at the portfolio. And don't be taken by ridiculous offers such as "we'll build you a full-featured website for $20."

So where do you start looking for a web design company? Of course we're going to recommend our partner company, Genesis Interactive, but aside from that, the best place to start is by searching Google or Yahoo. If you want to actually meet your designer in person, then do a local search, or look to the good'ole Yellow Pages.

Note: We are often in contact with companies running promotional campaigns, and offering very good design rates. Feel free to contact us to see if we know of any current promotions.